Massachusetts Institute of Technology

HOW COLLECTIVE INTELLIGENCE IS TRANSFORMING THE AMERICAN ENTERTAINMENT INDUSTRY
Henry Jenkins, MIT Comparative Media Studies Program
Monday April 9, 2007   4:00-5:30 pm
NE20, Room 336 Conference Room (3 Cambridge Center)

Abstract
Critics have noted an increased complexity in television narrative over the past few decades, yet few have drawn the connections between this push toward seriality and the emergence of collective intelligence and networked culture.

In his new book, Convergence Culture: Where Old and New Media Collide, Henry Jenkins describes the ways that grassroots communities, organized around the exchange of information and the production of knowledge, are changing the structure and content of the American entertainment industry. In this talk, he will focus on a range of examples of the ways that fan communities have pooled knowledge to outsmart media producers and the ways that media producers are building in new puzzles and challenges to keep their most hardcore viewers engaged. Examples will be drawn from a range of the most successful media franchises of the present moment, including Lost, Survivor, American Idol, and The Matrix. Pierre Levy has discussed art in the age of collective intelligence as generating a series of cultural attractors which draw together diverse intelligences; increasingly, these new entertainment franchises are also cultural activators which give knowledge communities something to do. All of this might seem trivial at first glance but such play may help a generation of youngsters around the world to master the skills needed to fully participate in the collective intelligences that form around business or government in the future.

Speaker bio
Henry Jenkins is the Director of the MIT Comparative Media Studies Program and the Peter de Florez Professor of Humanities. He is the author and/or editor of nine books on various aspects of media and popular culture, including Textual Poachers: Television Fans and Participatory Culture, Hop on Pop: The Politics and Pleasures of Popular Culture, and From Barbie to Mortal Kombat: Gender and Computer Games. His newest books include Convergence Culture: Where Old and New Media Collide and Fans, Bloggers and Gamers: Exploring Participatory Culture.


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