The Modern Journalist

SXSW: Henry Jenkins and Steven Johnson

The first time I met Henry Jenkins, he told me that when he started working in Comparative Media Studies his colleagues looked down upon him. He was the first person who labeled what we did as “the cultural gutter.”

It’s great to see him opening the SXSW Interactive Conference, filling ballroom A and the spillover in ballroom B.

Here are notes from his talk.

Steven Johnson, author of Everything Bad is Good for You, is leading the conversation.

• His opening statement is the same as its been for the six years I’ve known him: the traditional media doesn’t know how to deal with the emerging popular culture without seeing it as a threat.
• The structure of assessment for media literacy isn’t set up to deal with an era of collective intelligence (what I call “almost right”); nobody knows everything, everyone knows something and an ad-hoc, need-to-know groups for around information. (Henry Jenkins: “As I look at on the hall, there is much greater brain power than up [on stage]“.)
• People don’t do things that are meaningless. We may opt out of technology, but that doesn’t mean that it’s without meaning. The point: you can figure out the reason behind why someone uses any type of media, even if that group is very small.
• They are having a very weird discussion about Lost and The Wire; I am highly confused about why we care. The ARG discussion for Lost is interesting - and Jenkins point is that the community of Lost is what gives it a “new direction” for television.
• “What is wrong with America when these particularly bright, intelligent people aren’t given the ability to express themselves at their jobs.” - This is my fundamental frustration with the media. It’s why there is a brain-drain with anyone who has any talent for new media.
• People are acquiring their technical skills during their play, not through school and work.
• Jenkins is extolling the virtue of online culture, which exists outside of the traditional media outlets. The point: there is a disconnect between traditional outlets, which believe they are the gatekeepers, and the new outlets, which are alienated from the mainstream.
• “In a hunting society, children play with bows and arrows. In an information society, children play with information.”
• Steven Johnson seemingly rambles, I think. I am not sure I follow his thinking.
• Young people online use the language of “we” and adult politicians use the language of “I”, a study from the MIT Media Lab. The language of social networks.
• Jenkins just counted Hilary’s talk: “There was something like 120 I/You constructions in her speech. Everything is about her.”
• “We are the answers we are looking for.” - Steven Johnson. A great explanation of how the social media sphere works.
• MIT Center for Future Civic Media
• Wow, the most powerful idea I’ve heard as Jenkins discussed the book Bowling Alone. Who is to say that the bowling leagues of today, the places where we learn about community, leadership and communication, isn’t happening right now in World of Warcraft.
• We wear our social friendships like a turtle shell, particularly with mobile medi. We take our friends with us.
• The Internet is an urban location device if you use it right, says Steven Johnson. People care passionately about the things that are happening in their communities, which are oftentimes uncovered by traditional media outlets. Outside.in - his company, which geolocates and maps blogs and information to a map, based on your search.

Now we’re on to people questions. Here endith the lesson.