10/15 post class blog

Jenkins was one of the easiest theorists for me to understand thus far, based on my reading of the text alone. One thing he discusses is the fact that Star Wars became a catalyst for future film makers and the future directions popular culture took. "As media critics such as Robert McChesney have noted, the current trend within the entertainment industry has been toward the increased concentration of media ownership into the hands of a smaller and smaller number of transmedia and transnational conglomerates" (Jenkins 455). Jenkins refers McChesneys criticism back to companies such as Viacom and Warners Communication, but I see anther example in contemporary media like the book "Fifty Shades of Grey".

This book was written in response to the "Twilight" series, better known as a technique called "fan fiction". Super fans, such as the Star Wars fans in the article, take a story already written, in this case "Twilight", and the fan rewrites the story line with the same characters, sometimes under similar names, and replace the setting. In "Fifty Shades of Grey" we no longer have a blood thirsty vampire, but better yet there's a man who treats our leading lady violently in their sex life. It's all one big parody that ended up becoming a culture sensation, yet the original story isn't even "original". Instead of franchising an idea or concept, people now take the concept and run with it on their own. The difference in this case is fans don't have as much accessibility to becoming active participants, but it is there.