WouldntULike2Know 3/4

Ladies and Gentlemen, I have found it! I have hit the Jenkins Motherload! In reading through my notes from class to decide what I was going to post about, I decided to do a little research on the person practically everyone can identify as the "Leave Britney Alone" guy/girl (Whose real name is Chris Crocker) just for the sake of seeing what was on the internet beyond his own personal webcam. One of the top google responses to my search (the third out of 1,330,000 provided by google) said "Leave Britney Alone: The Thong, The Boxers, and the T-shirt. I began to explore this website and found beyond perfect examples of virtually every theme Jenkins discusses. (Check out www.leave-britney-alone.com for proof). At the top of the page, you shop for an array of different t-shirts and intimates. The Leave Britney Alone Classic Thong sells for $9.99 (in case you were wondering). This form of media convergence challenges the traditional definition in that it is based off of rather avant-garde folk art instead of corporate. This shows that the "elaborate feedback loop" can work in a conterclockwise fashion because of the massive explosion of "amateur works circulating the web."

Scrolling down, you find direct video links to the infamous video of Crocker visibly upset about the abuse that Britney has received at the hands of the media. Down further, are parodies of his video including "Leave Chris Crocker Alone," "Leave President Bush Alone," and "Leave Bill Belichick Alone." These public responses to folk-art push the envelope even further; so much so that it would be difficult to argue the works of Chris Crocker "folk" anymore because of the massive responses and overnight fame they receive.

In researching his story beyond what is already known, I decided to visit his myspace page, in which he self-proclaims himself as "The most watched video self portraist on the internet with over 116 million video views between youtube and myspace." Here, and beneath all of his youtube videos are prime examples of participatory culture in which people from all over the world leave comments, mostly hateful and bashing intermixed with a few praiseworthy supporters. This coincides with the argument that, in his case, Chris Crocker must be considered a Do it Yourself-er who has gained so much notoriety that he and his videos function in the form of the corporate sphere by creating a forum for people to "tap into the shared framework of popular culture to facilitate communication," all while making money off of novelty thongs.