Media sociology Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Media sociology - Essay Example Distinguishing fans from ordinary audiences, Jenkins offered an ethnographic illustrations how fans used the media material as basis of their own stories, songs, videos and social exchanges within a rich and cultural network. Jenkins underscored that this type of reading as â€Å"poaching† is some form of a â€Å"raid on literary preserve that takes away only those things that seem useful or pleasurable to the reader.† (p. 471) Citing artifacts such as Star Trek and Star Wars, Jenkins points to how its followers became identified with a scandalous category in contemporary American culture, which provokes an excessive response from those committed to the interests of textual producers and the institutionalization of interpreters and the emergence of questions regarding the logic of by which others order their aesthetic experiences. (Jenkins, p. 471) Jenkins’ argument is that instead of people branding the fans as cultural dupes, social misfits, mindless consumers and other negative stereotypes, he suggested that they be called as â€Å"textual poachers.† â€Å"Interactivity† is one of the most important features of the new media. For instance, Manuel Castells (1999) illustrated how conventional mass media is characterized by one-way, undifferentiated messages through a limited number of channels. The new media system, however, rides on the wonders of technology in order to accommodate the audience’s participation in effect, creating what Castells call the â€Å"culture of real virtuality† phenomenon. According to him, â€Å"while, there is oligopolistic concentration of multimedia groups around the world, there is at the same time, market segmentation, and increasing interaction by and among the individuals that break up the uniformity of a mass audience.† (p. 403) The above issue also brings us to the globalization of the new