Henry Jenkins Frightens Me [Core Post]

The use of "convergence," especially in the Jenkins piece, makes me very nervous.  It is undeniable that American media enterprises have rapidly consolidated ownership, but Jenkins' tone (and that of other scholars) seems to transform that historical trajectory into an inevitable force of nature that we may only try to weather.  Activism is oddly foreclosed; the evenness of convergence is of more concern than resistance.  The hopeful(?) prediction that "innovation will occur on the fringes; consolidation in the mainstream" is just as much a history of capitalism than a vision of the future.  "Name-calling" is hardly the worst horror of that history.    

Similarly, I do not see anything speculative about the idea of a world where "through media concentration...any message gains authority simply by being broadcast on network television."  That has been the state of communications media as long as it has existed.  I would even go so far as  to question if the period at which Jenkins was writing was when that started to unravel, as demonstrated through the British telefilm Ghostwatch (1992), the smash-hit The Blair Witch Project (1999) and its sequel, and the post-Paranormal Activity (2007) found footage boom.  All of those directly confront the reality/fiction distinction and the authority of media, while their predecessors were more concerned with journalistic ethics and imperialism (Cannibal Holocaust, 1980) or the very authority of television itself (Special Bulletin, 1983; Countdown to Looking Glass, 1984; Without Warning, 1994).  In the wake of Trump, it is a cultural assumption for many that the media is not authoritative.    

Frankly, I am horrified by the idea of replacing resistance with blogging.  The mention of Howard Dean could be definitive proof that such technowhimsy is unfounded, though an alternate reading could be that Bernie was the actual fulfillment of prophesy.  Some prophesy.  My concern is probably best channeled into a question that is just tangent to Jenkins.  How much does any of this materially affect the lives of working people?  New illusions of "engagement" based on mediated resistance and acceptance of corporate oligarchy is only a superficial "change."  The average person is never going to be empowered under capitalism, and corporate blogging are not going to help that.