Convergence Culture and Community Building

The Jenkins was a little tough to get through — or maybe it was just The Matrix chapter since I fell off the bandwagon with that pretty quickly after the 1st movie. A huge part of companies hoping to tap into the convergence culture where the diehards rule is overestimating the attention span or interest of the viewers/consumers. For every Lost where the fanbase is large and vocal and it translates to rating, there are shows like Caprica (that Cheryl talked about in class) or my favorite but now cancelled of the past season, Terriers where the fan base is loyal and evangelist, but too small to make the ratings worth it for the networks. The readings were timely with the release of Sucker Punch last weekend. I’d say I’m a fan of Zach Snyder’s visual style, but the premise and story weren’t in any way compelling to me. It looked like a crowdsourced young male fantasy of what would make a woman’s story interesting: skimpy outfits, action sequences, and unexplained oversexualized situations. It’s considered a failure right now because it lost out to a kids movie at the box office and the word of mouth sucks. The downside of convergence is the overextension of the property without the coherent structure to base it on.

Jenkins’s theory of Homer’s writings and Jesus’s story in the Bible as the first examples of transmedia works was interesting. The difference between then and now is that being connected with your culture was being immersed in an oral tradition. Everyone knew the stories and the archetypes/narrative shortcuts were instantly familiar with the smallest detail. It’s almost impossible to for a transmedia work to cross over on that level now. There are a few stories that might cross over in certain cultures, but I think the way properties are currently built is in the 360 advertising model to build awareness through pervasiveness and media synergy, but the development of the stories take a back seat.

The idea of community building is an essential piece to convergence culture and transmedia properties. Once something is out there, a community will either sustain or doom it. The lesson of Sucker Punch and some other overhyped failures like I Am Number Four from a few months ago is overreliance on the most niche of fans, the obsessive mostly male audience who would attend Comic Con and have their own vocal areas of the web. Lost had wide appeal across gender and age lines with the transmedia breadcrumbs that were compelling to the diehard and casual fan in different ways. There have to be many options for entry that feel organic, as well as space for feedback and a dialogue between fans and the creator(s).