Blog # 11, Readings for 4/21/09

"Quentin Tarantino's Star Wars? Grassroots Creativity Meets the Media Industry,"
This chapter is about the Star Wars movies which is a great example of media convergence beacause it caught on as a media frenzy which many companies took advantage of to make money.
The integration of Star Wars in our everyday lives has caused us to think of the series not as movies, but as part of our culture.
Three Key Points/Ideas:
1)Companies taking advantage of the hype
2)Dedication of the fans
3)Integration of Star Wars in mainstream culture

In convergence culture, both producers and consumers participate in various different ways. Consumers or the fans get so involved that sometimes they start their own production especially with the help of the internet without realizing the legalities of the situations. Producers worried that consumers were taking over and there was a legal battle whether to penalize the fans who illegally made their own productions or whether they should consider the fans as collaboraters to promote the original production.
Fans get inspired by their favorite show, song, or culture and the deep involvement gives them the ownership towards it. Amateurs take advantage of new technologies to re-emerge the grassroot creations. With the help of the internet, it gets shared by others for fun, to learn, and to bring improved and better material.
Star Wars parodies showed the evolution of amateur film making in both numbers and quality. "The idea that amateur film makers could develop such a global following runs counter to the historical marginilization of grassroots media production," (Jenkins 145).
Star Wars got the popularity of the media for several different reasons. Fan clubs of Star Wars emerged with a multitiude of films and clips affiliated with Star Wars for entertainment, but unfortunately, the amateurs did not receive any profit.
Star Wars is a great example of media convergence working through several different films, clips, plays, videogames, novels, comic books, toys, action figures, costumes, video tapes, and audio tapes. Amateurs are being benefitted by the internet through generating new information to attract the media which in turn brings new talents and innovative developments.
These developments increased so much that as Will Brooker said "Since the internet is growing so fast, we are in the process of developing guidelines for how we can enhance the ability of Star Wars fans to communicate with each other without infringing on Star Wars copyrights and trademarks," (P.155-156). Through Lucasfilms, the fans were given "www.starwars.com" in which the rules and regulations were enforced. However, both the producers and consumers were not sure on which rules should govern them and there was much conflict between the two.
The most challenging concept that I faced was the conflicts between the producers and consumers which I thought was unnecessary. As mentioned by Jenkins "In the end, the media producers need fans just as much as fans need them," (P.173).
Questions:
1)Why was Star Wars chosen as the catalyst for this media frenzy?
2)How did the internet play a role in increasing the hype of Star Wars?
The availability of such Star Wars creations is a problem for children with cell phones. It distracts them from school, homework, and even with spending time with the family. This "gateway drug" effect will cause these children to be so involved in their cell phones, they will be borderline obsessed.