The Cultural Industries
Download 0.61 Mb. View original pdf
|
| Digital optimism Another very different strand of cultural studies research on produc- tion inherits the emphasis on audience activity in 1980s and 1990s com- munication and cultural studies and applies it to the digitalising media of the early twenty first century. The most able exponent of this approach is Henry Jenkins, whose earlier work examined the activities of fans. In his book, Convergence Culture, Jenkins analysed a wide range of practices made 16 The easy answer to this is to invoke the idea of ‘middle range theory’. See Alford (1998) for an explanation of why this is inadequate. 02-Hesmondhalgh-4453-Ch-01.indd 56 25/10/2012 5:50:44 PM 57 Theories of Culture, Theories of Cultural Production possible by new digital technologies and which are ‘enabling new forms of participation and collaboration’ (2006: 256). In this respect, Jenkins is one of a number of intelligent digital optimists who celebrate the democratising possibilities of digital technologies. As indi- cated earlier, this digital optimism now extends way beyond cultural studies. The populists and optimists have been joined by a powerful army of journal- ists, authors, bloggers and academics from other disciplines, all of whom have inherited the countercultural belief that computers have the potential to liberate knowledge and creativity. This makes digital optimism a formidable cultural force (see Chapter 2 and especially Chapter 9, where I shall discuss this at much greater length). Download 0.61 Mb. Share with your friends:
|