Misplaced Pages

#369630

108-518: Jenkins has authored and co-authored over a dozen books including By Any Media Necessary: The New Youth Activism (2016), Spreadable Media: Creating Value and Meaning in a Networked Culture (2013), Convergence Culture: Where Old and New Media Collide (2006), Textual Poachers: Television Fans and Participatory Culture (1992), and What Made Pistachio Nuts?: Early Sound Comedy and the Vaudeville Aesthetic (1989). Beyond his home country of

216-549: A 5-year $ 50 million research initiative on digital learning funded by the MacArthur Foundation which announced it in 2006. NML's aim was to develop instructional materials designed to help prepare young people to meaningfully participate in the new media environment. As Jenkins explained it: "The NML conceptual framework includes an understanding of challenges, new media literacies, and participatory forms. This framework guides thinking about how to provide adults and youth with

324-593: A book about comics published by Random House . Brian Michael Bendis was born on August 18, 1967, in Cleveland , Ohio to a Jewish-American family. Bendis grew up in University Heights where, despite rebelling against a religious upbringing, he attended the Hebrew Academy of Cleveland , a private, modern Orthodox religious school for boys. He decided he wanted to be a comic book industry professional when he

432-573: A book co-authored by Jenkins and based on the work of Civic Paths and MAPP, was published. One focus of Jenkins' earlier scholarly career was children's culture , which he has defined as "popular culture produced for, by, and/or about children.... the central arena through which we construct our fantasies about the future and a battleground through which we struggle to express competing ideological agendas." Key topics in Jenkins' children's culture research include children as media consumers, video game studies,

540-530: A collective intelligence process is generated. One of Jenkins' key arguments is that given these cultural phenomena, media convergence is best understood by both media scholars and practitioners as a cultural process , rather than a technological end-point. The key work in Jenkins' development of this argument was his 2006 book Convergence Culture: Where Old and New Media Collide . As described in this book, convergence culture arises from digital era post- broadcast media landscape where audiences are fragmented by

648-520: A college-aged Peter Parker, and was written to tie-into the then-unreleased 2002 film Spider-Man . The pilot episode that Bendis wrote became the third episode aired. His dismay at being credited for something written by someone else, and the multitude of corporate and legal departments involved in the animation process soured him on the show. Bendis was one of the writers on the Ultimate Spider-Man animated series, which debuted in 2012. He

756-402: A continuum with an overall theme. This research theme addresses how groups and communities in online & digital media era participatory culture exercise their own agency. Such agency is exercised by tapping into and combining numerous different media sources and channels, in both officially approved and unapproved ways; when fans or users work as communities to leverage their combined expertise,

864-510: A fan. Jenkins' 1992 book Textual Poachers: Television Fans and Participatory Culture is regarded as a seminal and foundational work on fan culture which helped establish its legitimacy as a serious topic for academic inquiry, not just in television studies but beyond. Jenkins' research in Textual Poachers showed how fans construct their own culture by appropriating and remixing—"poaching"—content from mass culture. Through this "poaching",

972-455: A journal article about the distinctions between participation and interaction, and how the two concepts are tied up with power. Mark Andrejevic also critiqued Jenkins in the 2011 special issue, emphasizing that interactivity can be seen as the provision of detailed user information for exploitation by marketers in the affective economy, that the users themselves willingly submit to. And according to Ginette Verstraete's critique of Jenkins' work in

1080-403: A media fan. This also shaped his interest and understanding of participatory culture. Jenkins has described himself as an "aca-fan", a term that first gained currency in the early 1990s that he is credited with helping to popularize more widely (together with Matt Hills ' concept of the "fan-academic" in his 2002 work Fan Cultures ) to describe an academic who consciously identifies and writes as

1188-551: A new Moon Knight series with Maleev, which concluded with issue 12. In 2012, in conjunction with Marvel Studios' feature film The Avengers , Bendis began writing a new Avengers comic, Avengers Assemble . Bendis wrote the first eight issues of Avengers Assemble , a series that premiered in March 2012 that featured a new incarnation of the Zodiac, as well as the return of the Guardians of

SECTION 10

#1732902874370

1296-500: A participatory culture. The new media literacies areas given particular definitions by this project ( as listed here ) include: appropriation (education) , collective intelligence, distributed cognition, judgment, negotiation, networking, performance, simulation, transmedia navigation, participation gap, the transparency problem, and the ethics problem. Since his work on fan studies , which led to his 1992 book Textual Poachers , Jenkins' research across various topics can be understood as

1404-461: A period within that of "nine years" living as a stereotypical 'starving artist'. In 1996–1997, Bendis moved from Caliber to Image Comics , where Jinx and his other previous crime comics were published by Image's Shadowline arm in trade paperback . At Image, he also produced five more issues of Jinx . Impressed with A.K.A. Goldfish , Image founder Todd McFarlane sought out Bendis, which led to his writing Sam and Twitch . Although set in

1512-404: A planned, but ultimately unproduced, Nick Fury story. Marvel Comics President Bill Jemas , on the recommendation of Quesada, hired Bendis to write Ultimate Spider-Man , which debuted in 2000, and was targeted at the new generation of readers. Bendis adapted the 11-page origin story of Spider-Man from 1962's Amazing Fantasy #15 into a seven issues story arc, with Peter Parker becoming

1620-437: A prelude to Secret Invasion . After Marvel's 2006 " Civil War " storyline, Bendis helmed another Avengers revival, launching Mighty Avengers with Frank Cho in 2007. Post-"Secret Invasion", Bendis left Mighty Avengers with issue #20 and wrote Secret Invasion: Dark Reign , a one-shot that preceded another ongoing Avengers series, Dark Avengers . In 2009, Bendis and former Daredevil collaborator Maleev launched

1728-451: A process where integral elements of a fiction get dispersed systematically across multiple delivery channels for the purpose of creating a unified and coordinated entertainment experience. Ideally, each medium makes its own unique contribution to the unfolding of the story. Transmedia storytelling, Jenkins writes, is "the art of world-making ", "the process of designing a fictional universe that will sustain franchise development, one that

1836-532: A push toward a more participatory culture, acknowledging how many people are still excluded from even the most minimal opportunities for participation within networked culture, and recognizing that new grassroots tactics are confronting a range of corporate strategies which seek to contain and commodify the popular desire for participation. As a consequence, elites still exert a more powerful influence on political decision-making than grassroots networks, even if we are seeing new ways to assert alternative perspectives into

1944-752: A specific cultural and social context.". Jenkins has also called for a culturally focused pedagogical response to these issues. Jenkins' views criticizing theories (such as Jack Thompson 's argument) that video games depicting violence cause people to commit real-world violence have also been described in mainstream video game publications such as Next Generation , Electronic Gaming Monthly and Game Informer magazines. One of Jenkins' most well-known concepts has been his " transmedia storytelling ", coined in 2003 which has become influential not just within academia but also in media arts and advertising/marketing circles and beyond. Jenkins has defined transmedia storytelling as so: Transmedia storytelling represents

2052-491: A variety of research areas, which can categorized as follows: Jenkins' media studies scholarship has focussed on several specific forms of media - vaudeville theater, popular cinema, television, comics, and video games - as well as an aesthetic and strategic paradigm, transmedia, which is a framework for designing and communicating stories across many different forms of media. In general, Jenkins' interest in media has concentrated on popular culture forms. In 1999, Jenkins founded

2160-461: A vested owner about developing a property as a tangible asset with the future in mind," rather than only working on his own characters under his own terms. In 1998, Bendis co-wrote and illustrated the Eliot Ness -starring Torso with Marc Andreyko, again for Image, and in 2000 he produced three issues of the autobiographical Fortune and Glory for Oni Comics . That same year saw the debut of

2268-505: Is "a crucial element to the logic of capitalism," the democratisation of creative capacity that has been enabled by media convergence, through platforms such as YouTube, serves a commercial purpose. In this account, users become workers and the vast majority of convergence-enabled creative output, by virtue of the profit-driven platforms on which it takes place, can be seen as a byproduct of the profit-imperative. In contrast to Bratich's and Banet-Weiser's perspectives, in Jenkins' 2014 response to

SECTION 20

#1732902874370

2376-502: Is achievable. In his 2014 response to such criticism, Jenkins acknowledged that "My experiences at intervention have tempered some of the exuberance people have identified in Convergence Culture with a deeper understanding of how difficult it will be to make change happen....I have also developed a deeper appreciation for all of the systemic and structural challenges we face in changing the way established institutions operate, all of

2484-429: Is also gendered as the logic of convergence, which is, to a large extent, informed by the logic of capitalism, albeit in an online environment, perpetuating the ongoing exploitation of women through a replication of the 'free' labour built into social expectations of women. And Richard Maxwell & Toby Miller in the same issue also reference Jenkins' work to critique the broader discourse of media convergence, arguing that

2592-580: Is also the primary native language and English is the primary language of government and education, such as Ireland , Gibraltar , and the Commonwealth Caribbean . While English is also spoken by a majority of people as a second language in a handful of countries such as Denmark , the Netherlands , Norway and Sweden , these countries are not considered part of the English-speaking world as

2700-520: Is an American comic book writer and artist. Starting with crime and noir comics, Bendis eventually moved to mainstream superhero work. While at Marvel Comics , Bendis worked with Bill Jemas and Mark Millar as the writer on the first book of the Ultimate Marvel imprint, Ultimate Spider-Man , which debuted in 2000. He relaunched the Avengers franchise with New Avengers in 2004, wrote

2808-410: Is contested by some critics) empowered audiences to migrate to the content they wanted to engage with was central to Jenkins' claim that convergence is reshaping the cultural logic of media, giving rise to what he termed 'participatory culture'. Participatory culture follows from the replacement of the supposedly passive media consumer with a new active media user in an online sphere, no longer governed by

2916-712: Is not the native language of most of the people. English holds official status in numerous countries within the Commonwealth of Nations . English is the primary natively spoken language in several countries and territories. Five of the largest of these are sometimes described as the " core Anglosphere "; they are the United Kingdom , the United States , Australia , Canada , and New Zealand . The term "Anglosphere" can sometimes be extended to include other countries and territories where English or an English Creole language

3024-1025: Is passed along to novices 4. Where members believe that their contributions matter 5. Where members feel some degree of social connection with one another (at the least they care what other people think about what they have created). Not every member must contribute, but all must believe they are free to contribute when ready and that what they contribute will be appropriately valued. Jenkins has also highlighted these key forms of participatory culture: Affiliations — memberships, formal and informal, in online communities centered around various forms of media (such as Facebook, message boards, metagaming, game clans, or MySpace). Expressions — producing new creative forms (such as digital sampling, skinning and modding, fan videomaking, fan fiction writing, zines, mash-ups). Collaborative Problem-solving — working together in teams, formal and informal, to complete tasks and develop new knowledge (such as through Misplaced Pages, alternative reality gaming, spoiling). Circulations — Shaping

3132-518: Is so widely spoken, it has often been called a " world language ", the lingua franca of the modern era, and while it is not an official language in most countries, it is currently the language most often taught as a foreign language . It is, by international treaty, the official language for aeronautical and maritime communications. English is one of the official languages of the United Nations and many other international organizations, including

3240-1124: Is studied most often in the European Union , and the perception of the usefulness of foreign languages among Europeans is 67% in favour of English, ahead of 17% for German and 16% for French (as of 2012 ). In some of the non–English-speaking EU countries, the following percentages of adults claimed to be able to converse in English in 2012: 90% in the Netherlands; 89% in Malta; 86% in Sweden and Denmark; 73% in Cyprus, Croatia, and Austria; 70% in Finland; and over 50% in Greece, Belgium, Luxembourg, Slovenia, and Germany. In 2012, excluding native speakers, 38% of Europeans consider that they can speak English. Books, magazines, and newspapers written in English are available in many countries around

3348-404: Is sufficiently detailed to enable many different stories to emerge but coherent enough so that each story feels like it fits with the others"; and crucially, these different stories or story fragments can be spread across many different media platforms encouraging users engaged in the story experience to explore a broader media ecosystem in order to piece together a fuller and deeper understanding of

Henry Jenkins - Misplaced Pages Continue

3456-448: Is that he has argued consistently - including in his 2006 book Convergence Culture - against any inherent outcomes of convergence. Catherine Driscoll , Melissa Gregg, Laurie Ouellette, and Julie Wilson refer to Jenkins' work in the 2011 special issue as part of their challenging of the larger framework of media convergence scholarship. They argue that the willing submission of the user to the corporate interests fuelling media convergence

3564-487: Is that he overstates the power of the user in a convergent media sphere. Jenkins argues that convergence represents a fundamental change in the relationship between producers and consumers of media content. With the transition from supposedly passive to active consumers, the role and agency of consumers have been redefined, with a focus on their ability to engage with media content on their own terms. The ability of these 'newly' (the novelty and substantiveness of this empowerment

3672-623: The Civic Paths and Media, Activism & Participatory Politics (MAPP) initiatives at USC Annenberg since 2009 - work supported in part by a MacArthur Foundation Digital Media & Learning initiative on Youth & Participatory Politics. The focus of these related initiatives has been on studying innovative online and digital media practices in grassroots youth-led civics and activism movements, and builds on Jenkins' earlier work on fan cultures, online communities, and participatory culture. In 2016, By Any Media Necessary: The New Youth Activism ,

3780-708: The Golden Apple Comics chain [of comic shops] in Los Angeles . Bendis's best-known early work, Jinx , starring the titular bounty hunter in a crime noir version of the Sergio Leone film The Good, the Bad and the Ugly , began publication in 1996, and ran for seven issues from Caliber. He characterizes much of this period of his professional life in terms of working as "a graphic artist for almost twelve years", undergoing

3888-841: The International Olympic Committee . It is also one of two co-official languages for astronauts (besides the Russian language) serving on board the International Space Station . The English language has a particular significance in the Commonwealth of Nations, which developed from the British Empire. English is the medium of inter-Commonwealth relations. The English language as used in the Commonwealth has sometimes been referred to as Commonwealth English , most often interchangeably with British English . English

3996-508: The Spawn universe, Bendis approached Sam and Twitch primarily as a crime comic. He wrote Sam and Twitch for twenty issues, as well as most of the first ten issues of Hellspawn , another Spawn spin-off title. This non-creator-owned work allowed him to, in the words of Rich Kriener in The Comics Journal , "[add] the responsibility of caretaker to his resume, in that he would answer to

4104-520: The Starjammers story, which gained him an A+ grade for imagination and inventiveness. At 19, Bendis began attending the Cleveland Institute of Art , while working at a downtown comic book store where he eventually sold some of his early work. Between the ages of 20 and 25, he sent in a large number of submissions to comics companies, although he ultimately abandoned this approach to breaking into

4212-402: The United Kingdom (68 million), and Nigeria (60 million). As of 2022, there were about 400 million native speakers of English. Including people who speak English as a second language , estimates of the total number of Anglophones vary from 1.5 billion to 2 billion. David Crystal calculated in 2003 that non-native speakers outnumbered native speakers by a ratio of three to one. Besides

4320-775: The University of Iowa and his Ph.D. in Communication Arts from the University of Wisconsin–Madison . Jenkins's doctoral dissertation, "What Made Pistachio Nuts?": Anarchistic comedy and the vaudeville aesthetic (1989) was supervised by David Bordwell and John Fiske . He and his wife Cynthia Jenkins were housemasters of the Senior House dorm at MIT before leaving MIT for the University of Southern California in May 2009. They have one son, Henry Jenkins IV. Jenkins' academic work has covered

4428-574: The gendering of video game spaces and play experiences, the effects of interactivity on learning and the development of educational video games (this work led to the creation of the Microsoft Games-To-Teach initiative at MIT Comparative Media Studies in 2001 which in 2003 became the Education Arcade initiative, a collaboration with the University of Wisconsin .); and game design as a narrative architecture discipline. Jenkins' role in

Henry Jenkins - Misplaced Pages Continue

4536-438: The video game violence debate has attracted particular public attention. He has been an advocate of a cultural studies approach to understanding media depictions of violence, arguing that "There is no such thing as media violence — at least not in the ways that we are used to talking about it — as something which can be easily identified, counted, and studied in the laboratory. Media violence is not something that exists outside of

4644-417: The " Heroic Age ". Also in 2010, Bendis launched Scarlet through Icon Comics , his first new creator-owned comic book in over a decade, re-teaming once again with Maleev. In February 2011, Icon released the all-ages graphic novel , Takio by Bendis and his Powers collaborator Mike Oeming, and in mid-2011 a maxiseries called Brilliant with artist Bagley. Bendis's other 2011 projects included

4752-621: The Comparative Media Studies master's program at MIT as an interdisciplinary and applied humanities course which aimed "to integrate the study of contemporary media (film, television, digital systems) with a broad historical understanding of older forms of human expression.... and aims as well for a comparative synthesis that is responsive to the distinctive emerging media culture of the 21st century." The same ethos can be found in Jenkins' research across various forms of media. Jenkins' interest in vaudeville theater and popular cinema

4860-409: The English language globally has had a large impact on many other languages, leading to language shift and language death , and to claims of linguistic imperialism . English itself has become more open to language shift as multiple regional varieties feed back into the language as a whole. Brian Michael Bendis Brian Michael Bendis ( / ˈ b ɛ n d ɪ s / ; born August 18, 1967)

4968-533: The Futures of Entertainment Consortium - research initiative in 2005 when he was director of Comparative Media Studies program at MIT. Starting in 2006, the Consortium launched the annual Futures of Entertainment conference at MIT for a combined academic and industry audience. In 2010, a sister annual hybrid academia–industry conference, Transmedia Hollywood (renamed Transforming Hollywood in 2014) hosted by USC and UCLA

5076-548: The Galaxy , which teamed with the Avengers against Thanos. Bendis concluded his stint on Avengers and New Avengers in 2012 with the "End Times" arc. His final issue of Avengers , released September 2012, was a "jam issue", featuring splash pages by Marvel artists including Walt Simonson , Jim Cheung , and Leinil Yu . Following Marvel's "Marvel NOW!" relaunch of its titles, Bendis took on writing duties on All New X-Men , which saw

5184-585: The Marvel storylines " Avengers Disassembled " (2004-2005), " Secret War " (2004–2005), " House of M " (2005), " Secret Invasion " (2008), " Siege " (2010) and " Age of Ultron " (2013), and co-created the characters Riri Williams , Miles Morales , and Jessica Jones . Bendis has won five Eisner Awards for both his creator-owned work and his work on various Marvel Comics books. Though he has cited comic book writers such as Frank Miller and Alan Moore , Bendis' writing influences are less rooted in comics; drawing on

5292-539: The New Avengers / X-Men crossover, " House of M ", which would retroactively be considered the second act of a three-act super-event beginning with "Avengers Disassembled" and culminating in the Bendis-written 2008 storyline " Secret Invasion ". Bendis also wrote the storyline " Secret War ", which was published between 2004 and 2005. The series, which was not connected to the 1984 miniseries Secret Wars , served as

5400-499: The USC Annenberg Innovation Lab. Participatory culture has been an encompassing concern of much of Jenkins' scholarly work which has focused on developing media theory and practice principles by which media users are primarily understood as active and creative participants rather than merely as passive consumers and simplistically receptive audiences. This participatory engagement is seen as increasingly important given

5508-585: The Ultimate line, including Ultimate Marvel Team-Up , which Bendis pitched to Marvel as a follow-up to Ultimate Spider-Man , as well as Ultimate Fantastic Four , Ultimate X-Men , Ultimate Origins , Ultimate Six , the first three issues of Ultimate Power , and the Ultimate Comics: Doomsday metaseries . In 2011, Bendis and artist Sara Pichelli created the Miles Morales character as

SECTION 50

#1732902874370

5616-532: The United Kingdom, and then by that of the United States . Through all types of printed and electronic media of these countries, English has become the leading language of international discourse and the lingua franca in many regions and professional fields, such as science , navigation and law . The United States and India have the most total English speakers, with 306 million and 129 million, respectively. These are followed by Pakistan (104 million),

5724-676: The United States and the broader English-speaking world , the influence of Jenkins' work (especially his transmedia storytelling and participatory culture work) on media academics as well as practitioners has been notable, for example, across Europe as well as in Brazil and India . Jenkins graduated from Georgia State University with a B.A. in Political Science and Journalism . He then earned his M.A. in Communication Studies from

5832-465: The aesthetic merits of popular arts often frowned on by critics who embraced high art to the exclusion of popular art, Jenkins dubbed video games "The New Lively Art" and argued that it was a crucial medium for the growing rise of digital interactive culture. Jenkins brings a humanist interdisciplinary perspective, drawing on, for instance, cultural studies and literary studies . Examples of video game topics he has written extensively about include

5940-446: The approach more powerful and relevant. Jenkins also emphasises that Transmedia storytelling can be used to create hype for a franchise, in Convergence Culture , he argues that The Matrix -movies, comics and video-games is an example of this phenomenon. The principles of transmedia storytelling have also been applied to other areas, including transmedia education and transmedia branding, for instance through initiatives led by Jenkins at

6048-710: The character to eventually evolve naturally. His depiction of Aunt May in Ultimate Spider-Man , for example, strongly resembles his mother. Bendis met his wife Alisa in 1995 through the Cleveland chapter of the Hillel Foundation , where Alisa worked and Bendis was a staff illustrator. The two were married within a year. Alisa Bendis manages JINXWORLD, the company through which Bendis produces his creator-owned and licensed comics work. They have four children, of which three are daughters. Bendis's oldest daughter, Olivia,

6156-437: The comics industry, including Mike Oeming , Dave Mack and Marc Andreyko , and began the first in a series of independent noir fiction crime comics when he published two issues of Fire in 1993 and five issues of A.K.A. Goldfish in 1994 with Caliber. In 1995 he illustrated Flaxen from a script by James Hudnall , with David Mack providing inks to the story featuring former Playboy Playmate Susie Owens as mascot of

6264-557: The conglomerated and corporate media environment that convergence has both facilitated and come about in, restricts the capacity of users to genuinely participate in the production, or co-production, of content, due to the media systems' logic of commercial gain. This is in keeping with traditional media business models, which sought a static, easily quantifiable audience to advertise to. In 2012–3, Carpentier and Jenkins had an extended dialogue which clarified that their perspectives actually had much common ground, leading to their co-authoring of

6372-561: The critical special issue, he wrote that "These new platforms and practices potentially enable forms of collective action that are difficult to launch and sustain under a broadcast model, yet these platforms and practices do not guarantee any particular outcome, do not necessarily inculcate democratic values or develop shared ethical norms, do not necessarily respect and value diversity, do not necessarily provide key educational resources, and do not ensure that anyone will listen when groups speak out about injustices they encounter." Jenkins' position

6480-402: The decision-making process." English-speaking world The English-speaking world comprises the 88 countries and territories in which English is an official, administrative, or cultural language. In the early 2000s, between one and two billion people spoke English, making it the largest language by number of speakers , the third largest language by number of native speakers and

6588-515: The deliberate agency while Jenkins' idea of spreadability focuses on the active agency of the ordinary media user in sharing, distributing, creating and/or remixing media content. This focus on the active media user is understood through this concept as increasingly crucial in online/digital era media landscapes where participatory culture is more important than ever, and where the dominance of large-scale media content distribution tightly controlled by corporate or governmental owners has been undermined by

SECTION 60

#1732902874370

6696-443: The disenfranchisement of the user, is taken up by Jack Bratich, who argues that rather than necessarily and inherently facilitating democracy (as Jenkins' position is interpreted by Bratich) convergence may instead achieve the opposite. This emphasis on convergence as restricting the capacities of those who engage with it is also made by Sarah Banet-Weiser in reference to the commodification of creativity. She argues that as convergence

6804-473: The enhanced interactive and networked communication capabilities of digital and internet technologies. Jenkins has described the creative social phenomena arising from as participatory culture and is considered one of the main academics specializing in this topic - see, for instance, his 2015 book Participatory Culture in a Networked Era: A Conversation on Youth, Learning, Commerce, and Politics co-authored with Mimi Ito and danah boyd . Jenkins has highlighted

6912-499: The fans carried out such creative cultural activities as rethinking personal identity issues such as gender and sexuality; writing stories to shift focus onto a media " storyworld 's" secondary characters; producing content to expand of the timelines of a storyworld; or filling in missing scenes in the storyworld's official narratives order to better satisfy the fan community. Building on his work on participatory culture, Jenkins helped lead Project New Media Literacies (NML) , one part of

7020-457: The flow of media (such as podcasting, blogging). In addition, Jenkins and his collaborators have also identified a range of media literacy skills needed to be effective members of these participatory culture forms - see the New media literacies section below. Jenkins' work on fan culture arises from his scholarly interests in popular culture and media as well as reflection on his own experiences as

7128-431: The history of child-rearing , the cultural construction of childhood innocence, and the debates over media violence. Jenkins' conception of media convergence, and in particular convergence culture, has inspired much scholarly debate. In 2011, a special issue of the academic journal Cultural Studies was dedicated to the critical discussion of Jenkins' notion of convergence culture. Titled 'Rethinking "Convergence/Culture,"

7236-645: The industry, considering it too much of a "lottery." Best known as a writer, Bendis started out as an artist, doing work for local magazines and newspapers, including caricature work. He worked at The Plain Dealer as an illustrator. Although he did not enjoy caricature work, it paid well and funded his interest in writing crime fiction for graphic novels . He eventually moved into both writing and illustrating his work, before he began producing work for Caliber Comics , including Spunky Todd . Through Caliber, he met many of his longtime friends and collaborators within

7344-516: The introduction of the Neil Gaiman character Angela into the Marvel Universe. On July 22, 2014, Random House published Bendis's instruction book on comics, Words for Pictures: The Art and Business of Writing Comics and Graphic Novels. The day after that book's publication, CBR.com published an interview in which Bendis talked about the course on writing Graphic Novels he had taught for

7452-529: The language is still viewed primarily as a foreign tongue and does not serve an important cultural role in society. English is an official language ( de facto or de jure ) of the following countries and territories. Although not official, English is also an important language in some former colonies and protectorates of the British Empire where it is used as an administrative language , namely Brunei , Malaysia , and Sri Lanka . Because English

7560-405: The logic of convergence is one of ceaseless growth and innovation that inevitably preferences commercial over individual interests.(In Jenkins' 2014 response, he counters that throughout his scholarship he has emphasized collective agency not individual agency). Furthermore, Maxwell & Miller argue prevailing discussions of convergence have attended to the micro level of technological progress over

7668-545: The long-delayed Spider-Woman , following up on her role in the "Secret Invasion" storyline. Spider-Woman was the first comic book to be offered simultaneously on the Internet as a "motion comic" and in comic stores in print form. Bendis re-teamed with Olivier Coipel for the 2009 crossover series " Siege ", which brought the "Dark Reign" storyline to a close, and with-it, Dark Avengers . Springboarding out of Siege , Bendis relaunched both Avengers and New Avengers as part of

7776-588: The macro level of rampant economic exploitation, through concepts like 'playbour' (labour freely provided by users as they interact with the online world) resulting in a dominant focus on the Global North that ignores the often abhorrent material conditions of workers in the Global South who fuel the ongoing proliferation of digital capitalism. In his contribution to the special Cultural Studies issue critiquing Jenkins' work on convergence, Graeme Turner argued for

7884-559: The major varieties of English — American , British , Canadian , Australian , Irish , New Zealand English —and their sub-varieties, countries such as South Africa , India , Nigeria , the Philippines , Singapore , Jamaica , and Trinidad and Tobago also have millions of native speakers of dialect continua ranging from English-based creole languages to Standard English . Other countries and territories, such as Ghana , also use English as their primary official language even though it

7992-469: The most widespread language geographically. The countries in which English is the native language of most people are sometimes termed the Anglosphere . Speakers of English are called Anglophones . Early Medieval England was the birthplace of the English language; the modern form of the language has been spread around the world since the 17th century, first by the worldwide influence of England and later

8100-498: The names used for boxers mentioned by a corrupt boxing manager in the 2003 Daredevil movie. Also in 2001, Bendis helped launch Marvel's non- Comics Code -approved, adult MAX imprint with Alias , featuring former superhero Jessica Jones operating as a private investigator . The series ran for 28 issues before many of the characters moved to Bendis's mainstream Marvel Universe series The Pulse . In 2004 Powers moved from Image to Marvel's creator-owned imprint Icon , where it

8208-510: The narrative. Building on his studies of media fans and participatory culture, Jenkins has emphasized that transmedia storytelling strategies are well-suited for harnessing the collective intelligence of media users. Jenkins has also emphasized that transmedia is not a new phenomena - ancient examples can be found in religion, for example - but the capabilities of new internet and digital technologies for participatory and collective audience engagement across many different media platforms have made

8316-419: The need to be wary of any overtly optimistic accounts of the impacts of convergence culture. Although there is no denying, he argues, that the idea of convergence has "its heart in the right place," seeking the "empowerment for the individual ... the democratizing potential of new media, and ... [the desire to] achieve something more socially useful than commercial success," there are no guarantees that any of this

8424-467: The new version of the Ultimate Spider-Man. Bendis wrote every issue of Ultimate Spider-Man, including its second iteration, Ultimate Comics: Spider-Man . Quesada offered Bendis the writing duties on Daredevil , which he took over in 2001, writing most of the subsequent 55 issues until 2006, collaborating mostly with artist Alex Maleev . As a major Daredevil author, Bendis's name is one of

8532-450: The opportunity to develop the skills, knowledge, ethical framework, and self-confidence needed to be full participants in the cultural changes which are taking place in response to the influx of new media technologies, and to explore the transformations and possibilities afforded by these technologies to reshape education." Jenkins introduces a range of social skills and cultural competencies that are fundamental for meaningful participation in

8640-510: The outmoded and entrenched thinking which make even the most reasonable reform of established practices difficult to achieve..." In Jenkins' 2014 response to the 2011 special issue, he countered arguments such as Turner's above by stating that while we may not yet know the full extent of the impact of convergence, we are "better off remaining open to new possibilities and emerging models". However, Jenkins agreed too that his original conception of participatory culture could be overly optimistic about

8748-490: The past few years, initially at Portland State University , and beginning with the Fall 2013 semester, at the University of Oregon . His decision to teach came at the urging of Dark Horse Comics editor Diana Schutz . Among the works he employs as teaching guides are the works of Scott McCloud and Will Eisner . In November 2017, Bendis announced via Twitter that he would be working exclusively with DC Comics . His DC debut

8856-498: The possibilities of convergence. He also suggested that the revised phrasing of 'more participatory culture,' which acknowledges the radical potential of convergence without pessimistically characterising it as a tool of " consumer capitalism [that] will always fully contain all forms of grassroots resistance". Such pessimism, in this view, would repeat the determinist error of the overly optimistic account. As Jenkins wrote in his 2014 response: "Today, I am much more likely to speak about

8964-488: The proliferation of channels and platforms while media users are more empowered than ever before to participate and collaborate – across various channels and platforms – in content creation and dissemination through their access to online networks and digital interactivity. To help apply the insights of the convergence culture paradigm to industry, he founded the Convergence Culture Consortium - later renamed

9072-426: The return of the original 1960s X-Men to the present, Uncanny X-Men , whose focus shifts to Cyclops' team of X-Men going rogue after the events of "Avengers Vs. X-Men", and Guardians of the Galaxy , picking up where his Avengers Assemble run left off. Bendis wrote the " Age of Ultron " crossover storyline, which included an eponymous 10-issue miniseries, that was published between March and June 2013. Issue 10 saw

9180-421: The rise of grassroots circulation. The idea of spreadability also contrasts with the idea of "stickiness" in media strategy, which calls for aggregating and holding attention on particular websites or other media channels, Spreadability instead calls for media strategists to embrace how their audiences and users will actively disperse content, using formal and informal networks, not always approved. Jenkins has led

9288-439: The same issue, the tools of media convergence are inextricably corporate in their purpose and function, even the generation of alternative meanings through co-creation is necessarily contained within a commercial system where "the primary aim is the generation of capital and power through diffraction". Thus, user agency as enabled by media convergence is always already restricted. This critique of convergence culture as facilitating

9396-591: The screenplay adaptation of A.K.A. Goldfish for Miramax , and the screenplay adaptation of Jinx for Universal Pictures . In 2014, he wrote the plot of the Disney Infinity 2.0 video game. In 2013, he was named on IGN 's list of "The Best Tweeters in Comics", in part for his frequent Twitter posts highlighting the work of other creators. When creating characters, Bendis says that he always begins with someone he knows and builds upon that inspiration, allowing

9504-402: The source novels of both Thompson and Dashiell Hammett , which helped cement his love for crime stories . These, in turn, led him to discover the documentary Visions of Light , which taught him the visual "rules" of film noir , an important influence on him creatively. While in high school, he submitted a " Creative Writing assignment", a novelization of Chris Claremont 's X-Men and

9612-509: The streaming service HBO Max . The show is set to be based on his run of the comic book series and will not connect to the original animated series . In addition to his primary work in comics, Bendis has produced written work in several other media, such as video games , TV and film. Bendis was the co-executive producer and series- pilot writer for Mainframe Entertainment 's 2003 animated Spider-Man show, Spider-Man: The New Animated Series that aired on MTV and YTV , which features

9720-491: The superhero police/ noir detective series Powers , co-created with and drawn by Michael Avon Oeming and published by Image. Powers won major comics industry awards, including Harvey , Eisner , and Eagle Awards . Around the time Bendis began Sam and Twitch , his friend David Mack began working for Joe Quesada 's Marvel Knights imprint, which Bendis was a fan of. Based on Bendis' work on Jinx , Quesada invited him to pitch ideas for Marvel Knights , which included

9828-452: The technology) and participation (emerging from social and cultural factors). Jenkins also countered that there has been a significant level of acknowledging the broader context of offline power structures throughout his scholarship. Nico Carpentier's argument in the special Cultural Studies issue was that what he sees as Jenkins' "conflation of interaction and participation" is misleading: the opportunities for interaction have increased, but

9936-500: The titular hero after the fifth issue, making the book a bestseller, often surpassing in sales those of the mainstream Marvel universe title, The Amazing Spider-Man . The Bendis/Bagley partnership of 111 consecutive issues made their partnership one of the longest in American comic book history, and the longest run by a Marvel creative team, beating out Stan Lee and Jack Kirby on Fantastic Four . Bendis subsequently wrote other books in

10044-399: The unidirectional dynamic of traditional mass media but by the two-way dynamic of interactivity. These critics interpreted Jenkins' account as a techno-optimist conception of the agency of these users and therefore saw it as highly contentious. Jenkins' account of the dynamic of traditional mass media, and subsequent passivity of the audience is criticised as simplistic because he overemphasises

10152-487: The user engages with convergence; and an overly optimistic view of the democratic contribution of convergence. Jenkins published a detailed response in a 2014 issue of the same journal, (also published online by the journal in 2013)—'Rethinking "Rethinking Convergence/Culture"'—countering the critiques laid out in the special issue and clarifying aspects of his work. A prominent critique in the special Cultural Studies issue criticizing Jenkins' account of convergence culture

10260-405: The virtues of interactivity, without considering the real-life power structures in which users exist. In his 2014 response, Jenkins rejected these critics' characterization of his work as techno-optimistic or techno-determinist, stressing that the outcomes of current social and technological change are still to be determined. He also argued that his critics confuse interactivity (pre-programmed into

10368-409: The volume was edited by James Hay and Nick Couldry. Hay and Couldry identify some of the key scholarly critiques of Jenkins' work on convergence culture. They are: an excessive emphasis on the participatory potential of users; an under-appreciation of the inherently corporate logic of convergence; an insufficient consideration of the broader media landscape, with its corresponding power dynamics, in which

10476-424: The work of David Mamet , Richard Price , and Aaron Sorkin , whose dialogue, Bendis said, was "the best in any medium." In addition to writing comics, Bendis has worked in television, video games and film. He has also taught courses on graphic novels at The University of Oregon and Portland State University . In 2014, Bendis wrote Words for Pictures: The Art and Business of Writing Comics and Graphic Novels,

10584-414: The work of media scholar John Fiske as a major influence, particularly in this area of participatory culture. Jenkins has defined participatory culture as one... 1. With relatively low barriers to artistic expression and civic engagement. 2. With strong support for creating and sharing one's creations with others 3. With some type of informal mentorship whereby what is known by the most experienced

10692-462: The world; English is the most commonly used language in the sciences, with Science Citation Index reporting as early as 1997 that 95% of its articles were written in English, even though only half of them came from authors in English-speaking countries. In publishing, English literature predominates considerably, with 28% of all books published in the world [Leclerc 2011] and 30% of web content in 2011 (down from 50% in 2000). The increasing use of

10800-466: Was 13, working on his own comics, including a Punisher versus Captain America story that he revised several times. A fan of Marvel Comics in particular, he emulated idols such as George Pérez , John Romita Sr. , John Romita, Jr. , Jack Kirby , Klaus Janson and Frank Miller . He later discovered crime comics by Jim Steranko and José Muñoz , which he traced back via Jim Thompson 's work to

10908-647: Was also influenced by scholars of film aesthetics such as David Bordwell . This approach would later help shape Jenkins' scholarly appreciation of video games as another rising popular culture medium attracting much criticism. Jenkins, long a fan of comics , is also a scholar of the medium and it continues to be one of the key topics of his academic writing and speaking. Jenkins' interest in comics ranges from superhero comics to alternative comics . His academic publications includes work on comics by Brian Michael Bendis , David W. Mack , Art Spiegelman , Basil Wolverton , Dean Motter , amongst others. In December 2015, it

11016-500: Was an early focus of his research career - his Ph.D. dissertation at the University of Wisconsin explored how the comedy performances of American vaudeville influenced comedy in 1930s sound films , such as those of the Marx Brothers , W.C. Fields , and Eddie Cantor . The dissertation became the basis of his 1992 book What Made Pistachio Nuts?: Early Sound Comedy and the Vaudeville Aesthetic . A key argument of Jenkins' scholarship here

11124-503: Was credited as a developer and wrote several episodes for the TV adaptation of his comic, Powers , which starred Sharlto Copley and ran on PlayStation Network for two seasons from 2015 to 2016. Bendis's video game work includes Activision 's Ultimate Spider-Man video game , which Bendis wrote. He also wrote an Avengers game, which was never released. He was also a writer of Marvel's MMO, Marvel Heroes . His film work includes

11232-459: Was in Action Comics #1000 (June 2018). Ivan Reis drew the first issue of Bendis's The Man of Steel limited series, and collaborated with Bendis on the relaunched the ongoing Superman series in 2018. Bendis took over writing Action Comics following its 1,000th issue. On December 21, 2021, Bendis announced that he was developing an adult animated Legion of Super-Heroes series for

11340-604: Was launched. Building on his work on convergence culture as well as being a direct outgrowth of the conversations between industry and academia fostered by the Convergence Culture Consortium, Jenkins developed the concept of spreadable media , which differs from the theories behind memes and viral media . (This led to his 2013 book Spreadable Media: Creating Meaning and Value in a Networked Culture , co-authored with Sam Ford and Joshua Green). The idea of viral media or memes uses metaphors that leave little room for

11448-562: Was relaunched as Powers Vol. 2 alongside another ex-Image series, David Mack 's Kabuki . Also in 2004, Bendis oversaw the closing issues of The Avengers as part of the crossover storyline " Avengers Disassembled ". This led directly to the Bendis-helmed relaunch of one version of the eponymous team in the pages of The New Avengers . Bendis's work on this storyline included the death of Avenger Hawkeye , which proved controversial. In 2005, with artist Olivier Coipel , Bendis wrote

11556-450: Was reported by Microsoft Research New England's Social Media Collective (where Jenkins was a visiting scholar at the time), that Jenkins was working on new book focused on comics. Jenkins' research into video games was influenced by his prior interest in the debates around emerging popular culture media forms as well as his parallel interest in children's culture. Referring to Gilbert Seldes ' Seven Lively Arts (1924) which championed

11664-408: Was that vaudeville placed a strong emphasis on virtuoso performance and emotional impact which contrasted sharply with the focus of classical Hollywood cinema on character motivation and storytelling. Jenkins' approach was partly inspired by cultural commentators who believed that early cinema was unfairly treated by skeptical commentators of its era because it was a rising new popular culture medium. It

#369630