Henry Jenkins – talk and discussion, 15 May 2012

We are delighted that Professor Henry Jenkins, of the University of Southern California, author of Convergence Culture, will be speaking about his new book Spreadable Media at a Digital Transformations event at the University of Westminster in London.

Professor Jenkins will give a talk about Spreadable Media, and then engage in a discussion with Professor David Gauntlett, author of Making is Connecting, and a Q&A session with the audience.

Venue: The Old Cinema, University of Westminster, 309 Regent Street, London W1B 2HW (nearest tube: Oxford Circus).

Tuesday 15 May 2012, from 7:00pm to 8:30pm.

To attend: Tickets are free, but you must register here.

About Spreadable Media: Creating Meaning and Value in a Networked Culture:

Of all of the changes in the new media environment over the past two decades, perhaps the biggest has been a shift in how media content circulates – away from top-down corporate controlled distribution and into a still emerging hybrid system where everyday people play an increasingly central role in how media spreads. Cultural Studies has historically been centered around issues of production and reception and has had much less to say about circulation. What issues emerge when we put the process of grassroots (often unauthorized) circulation at the center of our focus? How does it change our accounts of the relationships between mass media and participatory culture? How might it shake up existing models of viral media and web 2.0?

This far-reaching talk, based on a forthcoming book which Henry Jenkins has authored with Sam Ford and Joshua Green, offers snapshots of a culture-in-process, a media ecology which is still taking shape, suggesting what it means not only for the futures of entertainment but also of civic life.

About Henry Jenkins:

Henry Jenkins is Provost’s Professor of Communication, Journalism, and Cinematic Arts at the University of Southern California. He has written and edited more than a dozen books on media and popular culture. He is co-author, with Sam Ford and Joshua Green, of Spreadable Media: Creating Value and Meaning in a Networked Society (forthcoming 2012) and author of Convergence Culture: Where Old and New Media Collide (2006). His other published works reflect the wide range of his research interests, touching on democracy and new media, the “wow factor” of popular culture, science-fiction fan communities, and the early history of film comedy.

As one of the first media scholars to chart the changing role of the audience in an environment of increasingly pervasive digital content, Jenkins has been at the forefront of understanding the effects of participatory media on society, politics, and culture. His research gives key insights to the success of social-networking Web sites, networked computer games, online fan communities, and other advocacy organizations, as well as emerging news media outlets.

Prior to joining USC, Jenkins spent nearly two decades at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology as the Peter de Florez Professor in the Humanities. While there, he directed MIT’s Comparative Media Studies graduate degree program from 1999-2009, setting an innovative research agenda during a time of fundamental change in communication, journalism, and entertainment.

Photo of Henry Jenkins by Joi Ito, of Inbamura, Japan, licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license.