Ding ding ding…the final countdown

Community & Convergence MK120 Media, Communication, Society Lecture 9 – 11/5/12

Humans are complex, supplicated, and nuanced – the future will increasingly move away from traditional “advertising” and more towards “experience, community, and interactivity”

1. A Shift in community 2. Convergence, Collective Intelligence, Action 3. Collaborative Consumption 4. Social Media & the Birth of the Prosumer EXPLORATION from hyper consumption to collaborative consumption

In a hypermedia age, how will markets reposition themselves to understand interactivity as a default for human expression

1.Define Community 2.List 5 main attributes of a “strong” community 3.What communities are you part of? 4.What makes you a part of those communities? 5.What role do media play in your communities?

The “WEALTH” of networks Communities of Interest Allow us to understand and promote better and more specific target audiences and price points Change from concentration to communication Change from mass to decentralized

Networked Information Communities Improves Capacity for people doing more for by themselves. More productivity in loose commonality with others People will do more for you outside of typical market functions (support you, like you, vote for you, share you)

How do communities leverage markets and causes in a digital age?

FOUNDATIONS FOR COLLABORATIVE CONSUMPTION

Participatory Culture 1.Relatively Low Barriers for Engagement 2.Strong Support for sharing 3.Informal Mentorship 4.Members believe that contributions matter 5.Care about others’ opinions of self and work

#1. Convergence

Convergence Culture Two principal trends: the tendency of modern media creations to attract a much greater degree of audience participation than ever before, to the point that some are actually influenced profoundly by their fanbase, becoming almost a form of interactive storytelling; and the phenomenon of a single franchise being distributed through and impacting a range of media delivery methods.

Collective Intelligence & Action Convergence leads to

COLLECTIVE INTELLIGENCE “…the ability of virtual communities to leverage the combined expertise of their members. What we cannot know or do on our own, we may now be able to do collectively” (Jenkins, Convergence Culture, 27) “What holds a collective intelligence together is not the possession of knowledge—which is relatively static, but the social process of acquiring knowledge—which is dynamic and participatory” (Jenkins, 54).

1.Exercise some unused mental capacities 2.Vanity – Making a mark on the world 3.Do a good thing (nonfinancial motivation)

Collective Action “Collective Action, where a group acts as a whole, is even more complex than collaborative production, but here again new tools give life to new forms of action. This in turn challenges existing institutions, by eroding the institutional monopoly on large-scale coordination” (Shirky, 143)

"The logic of digital media, on the other hand, allows the people formerly known as the audience to create value for one another every day” – Clay Shirky, Cognitive Surplus

Molly Katchpole, a 22 year old nanny working two jobs, starts a petition asking Bank of America to drop an unexpected new $5/month banking fee. 300,000 people join, gaining national media exposure and driving customers to leave Bank of America, and inspiring dozens of people to start copycat campaigns targeting their banks. In less than 1 month, Bank of America announces it will drop its new banking fee, as do all other major national banks.

What is happening? Commercial Economy + Sharing Economy = HYBRID ECONOMY

Hybrid Economies “The hybrid is either a commercial entity that aims to leverage value from a sharing economy, or it is a sharing economy that builds a commercial entity to better support its sharing aims. Either way, the hybrid links two simpler, or purer, economies, and produces something from the link” (Lawrence Lessig, Remix, 177)

consumption is a collective process consumers are now encouraged to seek out new information –EXTENSION – expanding markets by moving content content across different delivery systems –SYNERGY – owning and controlling all the operating manifestations –FRANCHASING – brand and market building under these new realities

dominate Shout loud Me, me, me Push Advertising control Community Listen & whisper Us, us, us Pull Viral allow SharingHYBRIDCommercial

Convergence & Old/New Brand Communities Participation Membership Common Goals Mutual Trust Social Dialog Personal Reciprocity