How can we talk about media convergence without talking about one of the biggest movies on media convergence? “The Matrix is entertainment of the age of media convergence, integrating multiple texts to create a narrative so large that it cannot be contained within a single medium. The Wachowski brothers played the transmedia game very well, putting out the original film first to simulate interest, offering up a few Web comics to sustain the hard-core fan’s hunger for more information, launching the anime in anticipation of the second film, releasing the computer game alongside it to surf the publicity, bringing the whole cycle to a conclusion with The Matrix Revolutions, and then turning the whole mythology over to the players of the massively multiplayer online game. Each step along the way built on what has come before, while offering new points of entry” (97). The Matrix challenged it’s fans to venture out into the technological world, asking audiences to try to discover the answer to “What is the Matrix?” I personally think that this was a stroke of genius (even though I was less than thrilled by the last two movies). In making all of these media outlets (websites, games, cartoons, etc.) the Wachowski brothers were able to almost bring the transmedia world of the Matrix to reality.

The chapter, “Heather Can Write” nearly blew my mind. Jenkins introduces this chapter by saying, “Storytellers now think about storytelling in terms of creating openings for consumer participation” 175). And, if anyone took this cue and ran with it, it’s Heather Lawver, and her love for the world of Harry Potter. This girl is an amazing role model for kids growing up in our digital age. She will singlehandedly inspire future digital artists to venture into the transmedia world, and in turn, inspire young children to reach out to other outlets for educational purposes. In regards to the Harry Potter wars, Jenkins considers it a “struggle over competing notions of media literacy and how it should be taught: the informal pedagogy that emerged within Harry Potter fan community, the attempts to tap kids’ interests in the books in classrooms and libraries, the efforts of corporate media to teach us a lesson about the responsible treatment of their intellectual property, the anxieties about the secularization of education expressed by cultural conservatives, and the very different conception of pedagogy shared by Christain supporters of the Harry Potter novels within the “discernment movement” (177).

Why are people trying to keep kids away from Harry Potter? Well, there are a lot of reasons, most of them stupid, irrelevant, and “retardidly” religious. I think it’s amazing that literature is encouraging young readers to venture out to the internet to create artistic sites of their own, supporting their favorite characters and fantastical worlds. If one is to check out fanfiction.net, you’d realize just how massively huge the Harry Potter fandom is.

When I was first introduced to J.K. Rowling’s books, I was in an accelerated reading class in middle school. We had just finished reading and dissecting the first book, and being a fantasy-obsessed child, I was ecstatic to discover that there were sequels. The other Harry Potter books were not on the itinerary for the class, but my teacher offered to let me borrow the set of books (there were only four out at the time) she had on her desk.

IT WAS THE BEGINNING OF MY FULL-FRONTAL DIVE INTO LITERATURE.

Before my accelerated reading class, I simply read because there was nothing else to do. I read ratty teen books like Fear Street, Where the Sidewalk Ends, and Stewart Little. But, the Harry Potter series really opened the gates for me. I began to search out more books in the library (inspired by the bookwork, Hermoine).

So what is the problem with Harry Potter? Nothing. It’s everyone else.

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