Convergence Culture with Henry Jenkins

At yesterday’s weekly Berkman fellows' hour we were lucky to have joining us Henry Jenkins, the Director of the MIT Comparative Media Studies Program and the author of the recently published book, Convergence Culture: Where Old and New Media Collide.

The afternoon’s discussion illuminated several themes in Professor Jenkins' work that resonate with work at Berkman. In the course of the conversation, Professor Jonathan Zittrain asked Professor Jenkins about the relationship between a consumer's ability to interact with and alter media content, and the ability to alter the technical specifications of media devices themselves. The ensuing discussion drew connections between Jenkins' work on convergence and Zittrain's own work on generativity.

Moving from writing about the blog to writing as a blogger himself, Professor Jenkins recently introduced “Confessions of an Aca/Fan: The Official Weblog of Henry Jenkins.”  Initially started to coincide with the release of Convergence Culture, Professor Jenkins has expanded the blog’s scope to include conversations about the technological developments in the media landscape and discussions about the work conducted through MIT’s Comparative Media Studies Program. 

You can read Professor Jenkins’ blog here and purchase a copy of Convergence Culture here.