Henry Jenkins watches too much Star Wars
In Henry Jenkin’s article Quentin Tarantino’s Star Wars?: Digital Cinema, Media Convergence, and Participatory Culture, it is very clear that he has watch and read too many Star Wars parodies and fanfics. But once you get past that, he makes some very good points about the media and the future of digital cinema. Since around the Industrial Revolution, a lot of importance has been placed on intellectual property by big businesses and corporations. Their wish to control every aspect of what they create (or the things they buy) are somewhat ridiculous.
As Henry pointed out, prior to the Industrial Revolution, most entertainment was more open and participatory. Stories were told and passed down through a culture, and altered along the way to gather new and relevant meanings. Today stories are told and controlled so that they cannot be adapted until the current rights owner feels it is appropriate. This is only hindering progress in cultural entertainment.
The other point that Henry touches upon is the notion of media convergence. It seems that every story gets retold in every variation of media possible. Books turn into movies, which then produce video games, and possibly a spin-off television series if there is enough money to be made. All the while there is no new content being produced, it’s all just a rehash of the original. It annoys me that whenever I look at new movies that are coming out, they are always based on some other media, like a book or a comic series, or it’s a sequel to another movie. It seems the only way I can be satisfied with a movie is if it is loosely based on a book that I don’t know about.
While this article was clearly written a number of years ago, his views on digital media and the internet are still very relevant to what is going on today.