Convergence Culture part 2

AMERICAN IDOL-WORSHIP

The contestants of American Idol's first season.

While reading this section of Jenkins' book, I couldn't shake this persistent feeling that he seems a bit outdated. His earlier reference of Survivor and then his initial focus on American Idol in chapter 2 left me thinking that perhaps it was time for him to come out with an updated and/or revised edition to Convergence Culture. Despite that sentiment, I still enjoyed the reading even if I disagreed with some of his points. For instance, I immediately balked when he made the claim that American Idol is what finally made Americans as proficient and prolific at texting as our Asian and Northern European counterparts. As I recall from personal experience, poorly designed phones were the major hindrance to our adoption of texting; Asia and Europe has historically received newer cell phone technology before America. I think it's just coincidence that our texting boom coincided with the first season of American Idol. However, the main point that Jenkins was making about American Idol isn't that it made us more text-savy, but that it was the first major instance of media convergence in America. When American Idol viewers called/texted in each week to vote for their favorite contestants, there was a new feeling of participation brought to reality television. This participatory aspect of AI hooked audiences and kept them coming back week after week. Fox broadcast network was delighted. Their viewership went through the roof. The viewers were also happy because they were taking a part in their television program. Finally, the advertisers were also beside themselves because there was an unprecedented number of potential customers for their products. Coca-Cola, for example, took full advantage of this massive viewer turn-out by actually insinuating itself into the show via "the red room."


Not everyone was delighted with the massive popularity of AI, however. Thompson points to Karla Peterson, a television critic for the San Diego Union-Tribune, who wrote a scathing rant against AI. Peterson saw the show as a "conniving multimedia monster" that relied on, among other things, "shameless product placement" to hook viewers. The interesting thing is that she's right in her assessment of the show. Everything about AI is contrived, and purposefully so. Consumers are loyal to shows that seem to cater to them. As Thompson points out, however, this forms an interesting paradox wherein the consumer must become a commodity in order to be catered to. This is how networks keep a grasp on their viewers. Unfortunately for the networks, however, their viewers are becoming increasingly hard to hold on to. We are so accustomed to having our media our way now that we have precious little patience for anyone who doesn't cater to our whims and catch our fancy. 


IMPRESS ME
On page 65 of the text, there is an image that is meant to represent the new youth consumer that advertisers have to contend with. This representation of the new consumer challenges the advertisers to "impress" him, a challenge that the advertisers are scrambling to rise to. The problem is that with more and more types of media vying for our time, we are no longer as likely to sit through commercials or programs that we find boring. We are much more capable of and savy at finding the media that will satisfy our needs than previous generations of media consumers.  If you're like me, a large portion of the television programs you watch are actually DVRed and whenever the annoying long commercial breaks come up, you fast forward through them. In fact, Jenkins states that, "current users of digital video recorders scan through commercials about 59 percent of the time." (66-7). As an interesting aside, television advertisements account for upwards of 30% of one hour of television programming. Another problem with television advertisement (besides how annoying it is) is that it isn't particularly effective in the first place. When advertisers want statistics on the efficacy of commercials, all they're really able to come up with is the number of potential consumers watching a channel at the time that an advertisement is run; they aren't actually able to tell what percentage of viewers actually go out and purchase the products being pitched to them. For the advertisers, it's enough just to know how many eyeballs were on the ad once it aired. The same, according to Jenkins, is also true for other forms of advertisement such as billboards and web ads. 


Apparently the solution the advertisers have found is "expression." With expression, the consumer takes the media he consumes and shares it, either by blogging about it, organizing events around it, wearing it on clothing, etc. The media becomes personal, and so, makes much more of an impact on people. In this way, the advertisers are almost have us, the consumers, do their job for them.


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