yellowdaisy4, 3/5/09

I found Claire’s presentation about participatory culture in cyberspace to be very interesting because she was able to study this whole underground culture that most people know about but outside the regular users don’t really think about all that much. What most people don’t realize is that it’s the this underground culture that keeps the big industries still going because without fans who cared, there would be no franchises or followings that pay to go see these movies or buy the comic books and memorabilia. This is why I was surprised when Claire mentioned how some companies don’t allow fan sites and fan videos to have music or clips from their shows. It makes more sense for franchises like Adult Swim to encourage fan participation. Jenkin’s mentions this when he stated “we are witnessing the emergence of an elaborate feedback loop between the emerging DIY aesthetics of participatory culture and mainstream industry” (571). The DIY aesthetics are things like you tube videos made reenacting your favorite TV show or doing a parody or making something like the Captain Jack rubber ducky we saw. I think it’s a good idea for mainstream industries, like Cartoon Network for example, that show clips of this stuff on TV to show they appreciate the fans for making it popular and having interest in what they are producing. I like how now the internet gives people with similar interest somewhere to go, like message boards, where they can find people who enjoy the same things even if they can’t find someone in person, they are still able to express themselves and make friends through shared interest. This also connects to the Jenkin’s quote “people who may not ever meet face to face and thus have few real world connections with each other can tap into the shared framework of popular culture to facilitate communication” (556). It’s really cool how Claire was able to take something that she likes and turn it into what she’s studying because you can tell she was very passionate about it and had a lot of information.