Sunday, October 25, 2009
Nemo 10/25
In class on Tuesday we discussed Jenkins and the idea of media convergence. Dr. Rog had us come up with marketing ideas for a new movie - Tarsman. I was surprised by some of the ideas that I came up with as well as my classmates such as: valentines day cards, McDonalds Happy Meal toys, trading cards, blankets, posters, stickers, billboards, websites, Halloween costumes, clothing, etc. We were able to come up with such interesting and outrageous ideas because we have all been bombarded by these forms of advertisement throughout our lifetime. Through media convergence our culture has become a participatory one. Jenkins states that "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" (p.556). Meaning that all the different forms of media have given people the ability to connect with others whom they have never met. For example if you are an Eagles fan and you overhear a conversation where two people are discussing the most recent Eagles game you might feel the urge to join in and comment on a specific player. This gives you a connection to those people even if you do not know them. This relates to the readings about Ideology because while taking in all of the different advertisements we are unconsciously following what the 'ruling class' is telling us is popular. As Marx said "The ideas of the ruling class are in every epoch the ruling ideas: i.e., the class which is the ruling material force of society is at the same time its ruling intellectual force. The class which has the means of material production at its disposal, consequently also controls the means of mental production are on the whole subject to it".
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You show a good understanding of the material we covered on Jenkins. Participatory culture reflects the way that the people each contribute to culture. Since advertising is used thousands of times a day it means that we are experts in how to target audiences with ideology. Having these relationships with people outside our physical surroundings further eliminates distance and time; how do you think the ruling class determines what the middle class will believe in? Do they merely dictact to them or do they look other factors, such as socio-economic standing , to determine how to best control lower classes? Think of the dynamic between the small in-control class compared to the larger middle class who without them the elite would not be. I hope this helps you understand the dynamic between the ruling and the middle class :)
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