Convergence Culture

Convergence culture is extremely interesting to me.  In a way it brings a psychological, as well as marketing, perspectives, into media studies.  It looks at what really makes up shows like Survivor and American Idol, and why they are so popular.

From the standpoint of a psychology major, convergence culture is the ultimate way to draw a larger fan base.  By getting viewers involved in the show through allowing them to actually influence the outcome, through voting in the case of these two shows, it gives the audience a vested interest in the outcome.  It gets people more emotionally involved.  Why watch these shows?  Because you have a say in what happens.

From a marketing perspective this is also a well-thought out idea.  The process of customization is something we all generally like to be a part of.  If I buy a new pair of shoes, I can customize a million things about them if I want to.  This gives me a greater reason to invest my money, because I am getting exactly what I want from it, not what some corporate suit wants me to wear.

This is the same for shows.  American Idol is the best example of a show where the audience gets a say in what happens.  They get to feel as though they ultimately choose the winner.  Though everyone may not be happy with the outcome, and the producers really seem to retain a majority of the say (America votes people into a “bottom 2” but ultimately the decisions are made by the judges), but in the end you either got what you wanted in a winner, or you at least felt a part of the process.

Jenkins also mentions how people like “Survivor spoilers” interact with shows like Survivor.  In their case, they do everything in their power to find out who wins Survivor before it is officially announced.  Using sleuthing skills and apparent distaste for the process of being strung along for months, they systematically narrow down the field of possible winners.  This creates an entirely different game within the game, even if their reasons for participating are because they dislike the game in the first place.

Convergence culture has a weird way of bringing people together and making everyone feel a part of a process, that they may not actually be as much a part of as they think.  Is this a bad thing?  Not necessarily.  Entertainment can be found in many forms, and if it’s entertaining, should we really care why?