Reading 2 - Panpan Deng

 When the writer talks about the convergence culture, the first thing comes to my mind is Duck Dynasty. Even though I have not watch this reality show before, I have seen at least ten people who are about forty wearing Duck Dynasty clothing. It is said in the news that “(Duck Dynasty's) merchandise has generated another $400 million in revenue, about half of which is through Walmart”. I begin to think that may the enormous sale of Duck Dynasty merchandise is called grassroots media. For the reason that every shirt is small but the number is huge just like countless grasses. Also in political area the definition about Grassroots is the bottom of the political pyramid, opposite the "establishment," which controls the top. The top in the political pyramid we can assume is the show itself. I can somehow see the effect grassroots bring to the top. Taking myself as an example, I did not know about Duck Dynasty before their merchandise spread all over Walmart. Now in order to use it as an example in my digital art class, I have to do some research about the show.(I am really not interested in watching it.) In a word, I do agree with Jenkins about the convergence culture:  where old and new media collide, where grassroots and corporate media intersect, where the power of the media producer and the power of the media consumer interact in unpredictable ways.

  “None of us can know everything; each of us knows something; and we can put the pieces together if we pool our resources and combine our skills. ” This notion from the reading make me think about a popular searching engine in China, Renrou Search. Renrou, in English means human flesh search engines or cyber manhunt. Here is the link. I do not think this web is the most effective one because if you really want to search someone by a photo or name, the effort is imaginable. Also this web is free and the other effective ones will charge people. Even using such web, after I typed my name, I found one blog which belongs to me shown as the ninth result. I do not know that information they will get with payment. The converge of internet sometimes can also be a bad thing.