Convergent Culture

Henry Jenkins says that circulation of media content must have the active participation of consumers. He explains that within a convergence culture members are able to express their opinions and concerns in a way that was not possible before. By convergence culture, he means that everything is more connected. Every source of information is connected to each other. The way I look at a convergent culture is that it gives the tools to fans and customers to communicate, and share their personal thoughts. When I look a the word “convergence” I remember my Oceanography class and the convergent plate boundaries. The convergent plates came together or against each other. Therefore, the way I see a convergent culture is a culture that is coming together as one culture. We now have the ability to communicate and share the same information. As a result, we are developing as one. Within this culture we become members of one particular culture. We have the same sources, abilities and tools as members of a convergent culture. 

Create engagement is the outcome of a convergent culture. Within a convergent culture members not only become active communicators, but they also are able to become active participants. By creating blogs, by sharing information on social media or by uploading pictures, members of a convergent culture engage in a creative way to express their opinions and to share the information that they think is relevant. In other words, a creative engagement is possible within a culture that allows access to infinite possibilities. We are able to see what others like and think at the same time. We can create our own social world online and make it the way we want other to see. Convergent culture encourages a creative environment. 

The key aspect to understand in a convergent culture is that every user can become a participant. We as users have the right and the choice to choose our level of engagement in a particular setting. We can choose not to have Facebook, but can choose to have Instagram instead. We can chose between creating a blog to express our opinions or simply express our opinions in Facebook. At the end of the day, we are active participants with a low or high level of engagement. We engage everyday we share something with others. By sharing something online we are not sharing it to friends, but to the world. Participants engage everyday by sharing information such as videos, articles, brands and personal opinions. It feels as if for the first time, we can share what we feel, like or dislike to the world. As I mentioned, we have the ability to chose the level of engagement that we want to have and how we want to be engaged.