Gauthier 1

Thamare Gauthier
ENC1102
Dr.Brandy Dieterle
08/30/2021
Jenkins Summary and Response

Participatory culture is at its peak with the influx of the youth actively engaging with its

ability to redefine and recreate a new idea of empowerment, creativity, and community. Henry

Jenkins acknowledges the staggering emergence of participatory culture within the younger

generation and the value of their presence within media in his article “Confronting the

Challenges of Participatory Culture: Media Education for the 21st Century”, and advocates for

its concepts to be widely supported across our education system and its networks who are

reluctant on incorporating a contemporary approach to interacting with the world around us.

According to Jenkins, “A focus on expanding access to new technologies carries us only so far if

we do not also foster the skills and cultural knowledge necessary to deploy those tools toward

our own ends” (Jenkins). Jenkins argues that participatory culture’s remarkable level of

engagement in comparison to its precursor, formal interaction, provides insight on how

participatory culture bridges the opportunity of creativity, collaboration, expression, and

inspiration at one’s fingertips, whilst being accessible to all. Jenkins does not dismiss the

prominent presence of media in our social culture but demonstrates how its consumers are

utilizing its contexts to create a sense of initiative and identity in their community of choice, that

our traditional approach to interactivity failed to provide.

Literacy takes on a different definition in the eyes of informal learning, by pushing the

boundaries of traditional learning and embracing the versatility that having a presence in media
 Gauthier 2

can give its users. Participants in the participatory culture create and/or join communities in

which they have complete creative control in how their choice of expression is reflected in their

creative projects, similar to creating art. In return, it allows the creator to maintain a presence in

communities in which their ideas are supported/collaborated, cultivating a new approach to

addressing issues within politics, philosophy, social trends, etc., and providing solutions and

perspective in a channel that its users are keen to using, that not only provides empowerment but

initiative that can be an advantage to one’s social skills.

Henry Jenkins article exposes the raw reality of just how much the youth utilizes aspects

of media to curate a sense of intellectual property that serves a purpose, reexploring how the

concept of literacy is adapting to our current form of engagement. Some may use it as a

reflection of their political opinions on our current day and time matters, others may use it to

create a community that embraces one’s ethical beliefs. Media is not normally assumed to be one

of the many forms that literature has to offer, but users that have a media presence embrace the

flexible nature of literacy and its influence allows us to reinvent the meaning of being literate.

Additionally, with media possessing many types of platforms, its possibility for potential

engagement is more than likely. Jenkins makes note of how the existence of media has engulfed

our current way of interacting with the world around us, and how instead of looking for the faults

in its role it plays in society, he focuses on the benefits of the revolutionary culture cultivated

from it.
 Gauthier 3

Work Cited

Jenkins, Henry. “Confronting the Challenges of Participatory Culture: Media Education for the

21st Century (Part One).” HENRY JENKINS, 19 Oct. 2006,

henryjenkins.org/blog/2006/10/confronting_the_challenges_of.html.