Comparative Analysis – Jenkins and Dillard
In two videos including Henry Jenkins, he discusses the terms transmedia, participatory culture and collective intelligence as two potential benefits that have arisen from new technology. Transmedia is the idea that the same story or piece of media can be shared across a variety of platforms. However it’s in a way that is supplemental because each platform has different features that can highlight certain ideas better. Jenkins also brings up the idea of collective intelligence, which states essentially that a group of people is able to pool together knowledge and compare solutions and ideas in a way that is mutually beneficial. Participatory culture is allowing groups of people to tell their stories that haven’t been heard and can challenge the dominant media messages.
The third video gives us a story of Grant Dillard, who one day had an altercation between a stranger and his group of friends. Unable to hold a conversation with this gentleman who wanted to get his friends (17 y/o at the time) to party with him, the conversation devolved to violence and the man pulled a gun on them. Dillard talks about how technology has worn down our conversational skills as a species. We’ve become so absorbed in our phones and social media that we’re forgetting how to hold meaningful face-to-face conversations. It’s interesting to see the contrast between the first two videos which are 13+ years old compared to the 4 year old Ted Talk where the views have shifted from the benefits of technology on our society to how technology is slowly ruining the fundamentals of language.