I very much enjoyed the Intro reading for this week and on page 22 Jenkins discuses how convergence is a representation of the shift in how we as individuals think about how we personally relate to the media.
For me this is absolutely true. A few years back I very much enjoyed a TV show Roswell, discovered a fan forum page and thread for it, joined, met folks, shared ideas, thoughts, comments, spoilers, wound up even taking a trip to CA to go to a party where I met some of the stars and have pictures to prove it. Through this digital experience I've gained some very good friends and experienced a unique personal experience from TV to digital internet.
The most interesting thing however is, that our group influenced the "top-down corporate-driven process and bottom-up consumer-driven process" mentioned on Page 18 of Jenkins text when we sent a massive amount of bottles of tabasco sauce to the corporate executives of the show so it wouldn't be cancelled and it ran for an additional year. They finally begged us to stop sending the bottles of tabasco sauce. They donated the sauce to charitable organizations but gave in to our internet generated fan demands.
I am fascinated to learn how much influence fan groups can generate.
Link to Forum: http://www.fanforum.com/f12/
Great Interview with Jenkins:
http://hot.carleton.ca/hot-topics/articles/jenkins-interview/
