my favorite mashups

revised 2nd web writing assignment

The 21^st Century Dictionary

          According to Wikipedia.com, Wikipedia is defined as a free, web-based, collaborative, multilingual encyclopedia project supported by the non-profit Wikimedia Foundation.  Wikipedia boasts over 16 million articles that have been written collaboratively by volunteers around the world.  Nearly all of these articles can be edited by anyone who has access to the site and has a Wikipedia account.  Wikipedia was launched on January 15, 2001 by Jimmy Wales and Larry Sanger.  It started out an English-only website but as its popularity grew, it was translated into many other languages to include an expanding global audience.  Wikipedia encompasses everything the internet has become, especially as a way for people all over the world to share knowledge.  Because anyone with an account can edit and submit information, it is one of the best examples of participatory culture on the internet.  It is also a source of convergence on the internet because anyone who has internet access can find information on Wikipedia to be used in whatever way they choose.

            In “Worship at the Altar of Convergence,” Jenkins defines convergence as “the flow of content across multiple media industries, and the migratory behavior of media audiences who will go almost anywhere in search of entertainment experiences they want (Jenkins, pg.2).”  Jenkins uses this definition to describe how a picture of one of the most notorious terrorists in the world can appear next to a Sesame Street character on a poster being used in an anti-American protest in the middle-east.  The picture of Bert and Osama started as a joke created by someone using Photoshop on their home computer in a basement in the United States.  It eventually ended up halfway across the world as anti-American symbolism.  This is a perfect example of convergence on the internet in the sense that this information traveled across several sources of media before ending up in the middle-east.  It started out as a children’s television show before pictures and video were posted on the internet.  Someone took a picture of Bert and cropped it together with a picture of Osama and then posted it on the internet.  This picture was then discovered on the internet by someone in the middle-east who printed hundreds of copies and distributed them at an anti-American protest.  Before the internet was so popular and accessible around the world, this picture would have never made it to the middle-east.  Thanks to websites like Wikipedia, anyone in the world that has internet access can now find this information.  Just by typing the words “Sesame Street” into Wikipedia’s search bar, you can find out anything you ever wanted to know about the show, including the history, its creators, and even its educational goals.  Just ten years ago this information would have been much more difficult to find.  Because of convergence, a television show in the United States can be discovered and used by anyone in the world, even in an anti-American protest.  The fact that anyone in the world can find and share information through Wikipedia has created a whole new base of knowledge for the world that was not possible before.  This alone would make Wikipedia an example of participatory culture on the internet, but there are also other features that contribute to this claim.

            Anyone with internet access and a Wikipedia account can log in to the website and edit content, as well as submit their own content.  This makes Wikipedia a legitimate member of the internet’s participatory culture.  Although Wikipedia started out as nothing more than an online dictionary, it has evolved to encompass information about entertainment, popular culture, and almost anything else you could ever want to find.  Many other forms of participatory culture on the internet have also evolved beyond what they were originally created to do.  Zuckerman makes this argument in his article “The Cute Cat Theory.” He explains that participatory culture on the internet was originally intended to be used in practical ways, such as helping college students find apartments, but that people have found ways to make it their own.  He uses Google Earth as an example of how people have found creative ways to use participatory culture in ways that they were never intended to be used.  An activist in Tunisia used Google Earth and another website called Planespotter to make a video that tracked the Tunisian Presidential airplane on some of its ventures.  He exposed the Tunisian First Lady using the Presidential airplane to take shopping trips to Europe and then posted his video on the internet.  Just like the activist who used Google Earth in a new and creative way, Wikipedia has expanded into much more than just an online dictionary.  If someone were to open a Webster’s Dictionary and try to look up Sesame Street they would not find it.  That is the beauty of Wikipedia.  Not only can you find definitions and other academic information, but you can find information on just about anything.  Wikipedia has become a library of information for almost any aspect of global culture.

           Since its early beginnings as an online dictionary, Wikipedia has come to embody convergence and participatory culture in every sense of the words.  Since Wikipedia’s content is available to anyone with internet access, information can be obtained anywhere in the world and used for whatever purpose someone desires.  All it takes for a person to edit and submit information on the website is an account with Wikipedia.  It has become a way for people all over the world to share information about their interests and culture.  Wikipedia has become a way for people around the globe to interact and share information, creating a true online community.

link to my screencast