Talk:Digital Media & Culture: Collaborative Essay Collection 2018/Convergence/Research Question 1:/JJ.AMBS

Hi team JJ.AMBS!

and the others (for whom I still don't have wiki usernames!)

This is the discussion page for collaborative essay. Use this pages to edit in discussions, decision making, project planning, and information sharing. Invite other groups to add to the discussion, and contribute to others. Ask for advice from others and share your knowledge. This builds contribs considerably. Start off your discussion by recording your decision-making process re: your research question, email the lecturer to get approval/suggested amendments.Once that's done, you're away.

You can leave notifications for other users by using the reply to template (as I've used in this notice). You can also use your own and each other's discussion pages, as well as the main discussion page on the general theme page. All of this adds to contribs, which are essential to getting a pass mark for this assessment. Don't be tempted to use social media group chat or other platforms to do this. It won't be marked and really misses the entire point of the wiki.

Don't forget to use the four tildes (~) to sign and date your contribution. Every edit you make whilst signed in is still traceable, but a signature makes it much easier to track and respond, and much less likely that the edit will be mis-recognised as spam or vandalism. However: don't sign your edits on the essay page - it looks messy and is unnecessary.

Good Luck!
 * GregXenon01 (discuss • contribs) 09:30, 8 March 2018 (UTC)

Essay Question
The original question we came up with for our collaborative essay on convergence was 'to what extent is Marvel a good example of media convergence on various media platforms?' After an email correspondence with our tutor we are reworking the question. He made valid points that using the criteria of 'good' creates the need to then compare Marvel with other examples to come to an agreement about the 'goodness' which would end up taking away from the key part of this essay which is convergence in relation to Marvel. We also came to the realisation that by having the question include 'various media platforms' we are limiting ourselves to the areas of convergence we could discuss as convergence goes much further than just media platforms. Our tutor also believes the idea we came up with to focus some of the essay on fan culture and fandom would be interesting within this essay as it is such a big part of the Marvel Universe and takes the notion of convergence an extra step.

So from all this we have come up with a more rounded question allowing us to talk about all the aspects of convergence that are important within the Marvel Universe. Our collaborative essay question is going to be 'How can the concept of Media Convergence be discussed in relation to Marvel?'

(Bex.frew (discuss • contribs) 10:54, 12 March 2018 (UTC))

Introduction Ideas
The introduction of our essay needs to give a brief outline of who Marvel are as a company but also our definition of what media convergence is. When introducing Marvel we need to discuss the companies history from comic books to Marvel Entertainment and all their endeavours e.g. television series, video games etc. In terms of defining what convergence is, we are going to as a group come up with our definition that we feel covers the key areas of the term. We will use theorists such as Henry Jenkins who have discussed the concept in detail to help us with the definition and wha it means. Finally the introduction will signpost the key areas that we hope to discuss in relation to convergence within the Marvel Universe which will be films, television, video games, comic books and the fandom culture.

(Bex.frew (discuss • contribs) 11:13, 12 March 2018 (UTC))

Visitor Comments
Hi

I was just looking through the different essay questions and yours caught my eye, not the least because I am a huge fan of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. What however struck me, was that you are planning to discuss Marvel in regards to convergence, when I primarily thought of Marvel as one of the biggest examples of transmedia storytelling. Albeit, I can see that since we live in a convergent media landscape an example of transmediality can also be analysed within the notion of convergence.

Thus, I am wondering what your approach will be like. Have you for example considered analysing the digital technology as presented in the Marvel Cinematic Universe films? The cinematic presentation could also be brought into connection with Bolter and Grusin’s notion of remediation, immediacy and hypermediacy. Many of the movies have been produced to be screened in 3D, arguably making the images more exciting and lively, which could be related back to immediacy. Yet, the multiplicity of stereoscopic imagery and its potentially disruptive potential, might bring the viewer back the interface, or the awareness of the screened film. This could be related to hypermediacy. What do you think? Would you agree with this and might this be useful for your essay?

If you want to read more about remediation here is the full citation: Bolter, J. D., & Grusin, R. (2000). Remediation: Understanding new media. London: MIT Press. (Hardcopies are available in the library)

My group, Never Off and I would be delighted if you would visit and contribute to our discussion page too. Accessible at Always-on Culture: Research Question 2: Discussion.

MaryCastoridae56 (discuss • contribs) 12:27, 16 March 2018 (UTC)

Hi
 * This is a great start. Keep it going guys - we need to see lots of discussion recorded here for you to amass "conrtibs" which are used to evaluate engagement. GregXenon01 (discuss • contribs) 12:38, 16 March 2018 (UTC)

Hey team just wanted to say a big well done, I think we've all done massively well. Good luck to you all!MTxPrincipessa18 (discuss • contribs) 10:49, 5 April 2018 (UTC)

Hi Just had a read through your groups essay and it reads really well! Hope you had the chance to have a look at ours also? I wish you all the best of luck for the remainder of the semester! Amm00137 (discuss • contribs) 10:59, 5 April 2018 (UTC)

INSTRUCTOR FEEDBACK
General Feedback
 * Essays of this standard attain the following grade descriptor for the collaborative essay. Whereas not all of the elements here will be directly relevant to your particular response to the brief, this will give you a clearer idea of how the grade you have been given relates to the standards and quality expected of work at this level:
 * Satisfactory. Among other things, satisfactory standard work may try to relate an idea from the module to an original example, but might not be very convincing. It may waste space on synopsis or description, rather than making a point. It may have spelling or grammatical errors and typos. It might not demonstrate more than a single quick pass at the assignment, informed only by lecture materials and/or cursory reading. It may suggest reading but not thinking (or indeed the reverse). The wiki markup formatting will need some work.

Specific Feedback:


 * You have submitted a fairly well written response to the brief. Here you outline a number of instances of convergence media from a specific fandom/expanded universe. However your discussion of the research is largely limited to instances of these as examples without ever really getting to the heart of what media convergence is, or what it can say as a concept about these examples. This is a problem, which is compounded by the way that the essay at times draws from facts without citing sources, and also an insistence on describing the corporate and industrial history of marvel, without ever really linking this back to the more interesting concepts that the examples should be illustrating. This has the effect of evidencing a superficial working knowledge of scholarship on your chosen topic. The example that you have chosen to discuss your theme is fairly well-chosen because there are lots of cultural objects and texts out there with an expanded universe history  that fans have built up and engage with. It just never really gets to grips with the concepts that inform a critical understanding of these things as cultural artefacts, practices and systems.


 * Generally, the essay is written in a fairly accessible style, although the research question you have chosen is worded rather awkwardly – perhaps “In what ways can the Marvel Universe be discussed in relation to the concept of Media Convergence?”; or “To what extent might examples from the marvel Universe be considered as illustrative of Media Convergence?”. Something like that would have opened up the potential for critical engagement with both concepts and texts, and allow you to bring out the underlying these here. As a result, although your argument is contains some really interesting work, and that some of this is supported through reading and research, the structure could do with improving, and at times the argument is a little disengaged and you end up having not particularly demonstrated awareness of the contradictions inherent in the theme itself.


 * Also, out of curiosity, who are the mysterious “three academics from the University of Nottingham” who put forth a thesis on fandom? They do not seem to be named, nor cited. I’m wondering why this has been written up like this. The essay page could have done with making much more of the platforms affordances – embedded links, images and interwiki links would have really brought this out.


 * N.B.:’’’Feedback for your Discussion, engagement and contribs elements for the assessment will be given on your individual User Discussion Pages. Grades for all work will communicated confidentially via Canvas.’’’

GregXenon01 (discuss • contribs) 11:36, 23 April 2018 (UTC)