Media Scholar Henry Jenkins to Join USC

By Alex Boekelheide on December 16, 2008 3:42 PM

In a move building upon its scholarly leadership in communication, cinematic arts and digital culture, USC has announced that media studies expert and advocate of the “YouTube generation” Henry Jenkins will join its faculty in July 2009.

Jenkins will leave his post at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to hold a joint appointment at USC’s Annenberg School for Communication and School of Cinematic Arts.

As one of the first scholars to chart the changing role of the audience in an increasingly transmedia environment, Jenkins has been at the forefront of understanding the effects of participatory media on society, politics and culture.

His research has given key insights to the success of social-networking Web sites, networked computer games, online fan communities and other advocacy organizations, and emerging news media outlets. His 2006 book Convergence Culture: Where Old and New Media Collide, a hallmark of recent research on the subject, breaks important ground in identifying convergence as a cultural rather than technical process and examining the concepts of collective intelligence and participatory culture.

“At USC, Dr. Jenkins will find an academic community eager to engage with his important research in our digital age’s popular culture, participatory media and social interaction,” said USC Provost and Executive Vice President C. L. Max Nikias. “I look forward to the intellectual contributions and creative perspective he will bring to our campus.”

Said Jenkins, “USC offers a natural home for me, given there is world-class research being done there on many of the topics that have been the focus of my interest in recent years - civic media, games, emerging modes of storytelling, new media literacies, creative industries and participatory culture, and the relationship between politics and popular culture. USC has been assembling a dream team in the field of media studies, and I am proud to become a part of that community.”

As the Provost’s Professor of Communication, Journalism and Cinematic Arts at USC, Jenkins will encourage conversation and collaboration among scholars and students within the two schools and beyond. He also will teach courses at the undergraduate and graduate levels.

“We are delighted to welcome a scholar of Henry’s stature to our faculty,” said Ernest J. Wilson III, dean of the USC Annenberg School for Communication. “His research interests weave a common thread through many of our existing centers and programs, including examinations of online communities, digital media’s impact on journalism and society, the effects of computer gaming and the ongoing use of information in the public interest. Dr. Jenkins is an excellent addition to our strong trajectory through these subjects.”

Elizabeth M. Daley, dean of the School of Cinematic Arts, said, “Many of our faculty have worked with Henry for years on a wide range of projects, so his arrival will actually be more like a homecoming. His interests in media are a natural fit with our programs and initiatives such as the media arts and practice Ph.D. track.”

Jenkins is currently the Peter de Florez Professor in the Humanities at MIT. Since 1999, he has directed that university’s comparative media studies graduate degree program, setting an innovative research agenda during a time of fundamental change in communication, journalism and entertainment. Recognized for its groundbreaking work in “applied humanism,” as Jenkins describes it, the center works closely with corporations, nonprofit organizations, government agencies and other research institutions to apply academic theories in real-world situations.

Jenkins is recognized as a leading thinker in the effort to redefine the role of journalism in the digital age. Through parallels drawn between the consumption of pop culture and the processing of news information, he and his fellow researchers have identified new methods to encourage citizen engagement. In 2007, Jenkins and fellow scholars Mitchell Resnick and Chris Csikszentmihályi launched the Center for Future Civic Media at MIT, a joint venture with the MIT Media Lab, to further explore these parallels.

Jenkins also has played a central role in demonstrating the importance of new media technologies in educational settings. At MIT, he wrote a white paper for the MacArthur Foundation, “Confronting the Challenges of Participatory Culture: Media Education for the 21st Century,” and now heads a team which is translating its insights into curricular materials and teacher-training programs to support the teaching of new media literacy through schools and after school programs.

Jenkins’ weblog, “Confessions of an Aca-Fan” (http:www.henryjenkins.org), has become a global address for discussion of new media and digital convergence.

In addition to Convergence Culture, Jenkins is the author of Textual Poachers: Television Fans and Participatory Culture, his 1992 book that first articulated his observations of the shifting relationships between consumers and media. His background in critical film studies is evident in What Made Pistachio Nuts: Anarchistic Comedy and the Vaudeville Aesthetic, a 1992 book about comedians in the early sound era.

“Hollywood is undergoing a profound transition in terms of its understanding of how to tell stories across media platforms and of how to engage with more empowered consumers,” Jenkins said. “Being at USC gives me an incredible platform from which to observe and intervene in this transformation as well as to help prepare students for working in this rapidly evolving environment.”

Jenkins earned his doctorate in communication arts from the University of Wisconsin, his master’s degree from the University of Iowa and his bachelor’s degree from Georgia State University. He and his wife, Cynthia, have one son, Henry IV.

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