While i was off playing this summer, one of my dear mentors (and a good friend) went off and started blogging. There are few people that i respect more than Henry Jenkins and i’m *sooo* stoked to get a daily dose of Henry insightfulness – i deeply miss that from my days at MIT. I feel bad for not being around to properly welcome him to the blogosphere. **WELCOME!** I strongly encourage everyone to check out Henry’s blog – i’m sure you’ll find it as mentally yummy as i do.
For those who work in the tech or media industry and don’t know Henry, shame on you. Henry is the expert on participatory culture and really gets “user generated content” because he studies how fans create content and culture around their favorite artifacts. Over the years, he’s looked at everything from fan fiction to WWF, gaming to Columbine, children’s culture to media consumption. His work is seminal and uber-relevant to folks interested in media and tech.
His latest work is particularly relevant to those interested in what’s going on with YouTube and MySpace, Lost and American Idol. Henry just published a book called Convergence Culture which provides a set of case studies where media is converging in interesting ways. Video games are telling the backstories to movies. TV has become participatory. Etc. This is precisely why i find LA fascinating – old media and new media are converging because the consumers are making them. This is a must-read book for folks trying to understand why and how people are engaging in all sorts of new media practices.
PS: Henry also has a really good article on Four Ways to Kill MySpace for you MySpace folks…
PPS: In case you missed it before, Henry and i co-authored a piece on MySpace and DOPA…
I had the incredible pleasure of talking to Dr. Jenkins for several hours while I was at Yahoo!, and I found him to be warm, witty & brilliant. And, as you mention, he *really* gets social media. I was high from the meeting for two days (and wishing I could have studied under him at University!).
Thanks so much for putting him back on my radar (and into my RSS feeds).
thanks for the link to his blog, much goodness there. i had bought his book at your suggestion at that picnic and i’m enjoying what it has me thinking about as i work through it.
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