MIT's Dr. Henry Jenkins III describes his experience with harnessing consumer participation to enhance the value of brands and entertainment properties.
Welcome to convergence culture, where old and new media collide, where consumers and producers both become participants and where the rules of branding are up for grabs. Drawing on ideas from his forthcoming book, "Convergence Culture: Where Old and New Media Collide," professor Henry Jenkins, director of the MIT Comparative Media Studies Program, explains what happens to branding in an age when every idea, image, story and relationship flows across every available media channel and when consumers have the power to archive, annotate, appropriate and recirculate media content at will.
The age of convergence culture is also an era of mixed signals: everyone involved recognizes that consumers will now be active participants, but no one can agree on the terms of their participation.
In today's presentation, Jenkins will describe some of the first experiments in harnessing consumer participation to enhance the value of brands and entertainment properties. He will also discuss the untapped potential of entertainment companies renegotiating their contracts with consumers.
Dr. Henry Jenkins III's Bio: Dr. Jenkins, the DeFlorz Professor of Humanities and director of the MIT Comparative Media Studies Program, has spent his career studying media and the way people incorporate it into their lives. He is the principal investigator for the MIT-Microsoft Games-to-Teach project, which is examining the educational potential of computer and video games. He is one of the founders and directors of The Education Arcade. He writes two monthly columns: "The Digital Renaissance" for Technology Review Online and "Applied Game Theory" for Computer Games magazine. His books include "Hop on Pop: The Politics and Pleasures of Popular Culture" and "Convergence Culture: Where Old and New Media Intersect."
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Speaker(s): Dr. Henry Jenkins III, DeFlorz Professor of Humanities and Director of Comparative Media Studies, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Format: Zipped PowerPoint File