Media Convergence

http://theforce.net/fanfilms/story/Chad_Vader_Is_Your_Father_124479.asp

The above link goes to a website called, theforce.net. This website is basically dedicated to Star Wars and its enormous fan base. In the website you can find quite a few fan-made remakes or parodies profiling Star Wars and its characters. This is just one example of the dozens of websites dedicated to such fans, not to mention the countless amount of other fan websites dedicated to other movies. Developments in technology have allowed fans to get involved in ways that they previously would have never dreamed of. In regards to Star Wars, people have made stories, short films, movies, and much more based of characters and places from the movies. As said by Henry Jenkins in his book, Convergence Culture, "within convergence culture, everyone's a participant" (132). These fan-made videos "reaffirm the right of everyday people to actively contribute to their culture" (132). Although many of these parodies seem silly or unprofessional they are great ways for ideas to be spread and amateurs to be discovered. This film is just a simple parody of possibly the most famous scene from the Star Wars movies, Darth Vader exposes his true identity to his son, Luke Skywalker. It plays off the scene and Father's Day, combining the two into a really funny situation. Obviously, the filmmaker had Star Wars fans in mind when making this. To most it may just be a short funny film, but it is a great representation of what fans are now able to do in regards to their favorite films.

Above is an picture that has been excellently photoshopped. It is a rather creepy picture of a combination of Hilary Clinton and Barrack Obama, the two democratic nominees for president in 2008. It is suggesting that Barrack Obama and Hilary Clinton should join forces and run together under the same ticket. It appeals to logic, for democrats struggling to decide who they were going to give their votes to. Why choose one or the other if you can have them both. Walter Benjamin suggested that mass-circulated images could have a large impact on politics. This has shown to be accurate countless time. Pictures carry a lot of power, and whether it is right or wrong to base your political opinions off this media it is definitely occurring. Personally, I think it is not very smart to base opinions off something that is really made to be comical.