producers vs. consumers

The love/hate relationship between producers and consumers that Jenkins describes in Chapter One "Spoiling Survivor" is classic supply and demand with the integral twist of converging media, and the subsequent control, power, and demand of the consumer. Now, consumers are producers. The grasp of people's attention is a major factor in the love/hate relationship. Jenkins says that "fans exploit convergence to create their own points of contact." Producers and consumers on all sides and at every point of perspective seem to be fighting for the lime light; everyone wants the information first, they fight to get it. Then when the subject becomes boring it is mute. Reading "Survivor Spoiling," I kept waiting for the point were Jenkins made aware to the reader that people do merely watch the television show, instead of searching and stalking the facts before they are presented in the intended fashion. But if you think about it, maybe the pure consumer of the television show does not log on to the blog and participate directly with the spoilers; the show can still be ruined for that individual under many circumstances. The news stations and medium want to know who is spoiling what, and they make news out of the spoilers. So, the pure consumer, who is waiting to watch and enjoy the show in time as intended, has the chance of getting spoiled by the domino effect of information when he goes to check his email, or reads the newspaper, watches the morning news, or water-cooler talk about the said information. With converging medium comes an influx of information and ideas attainable and unavoidable to everyone. The information, once surfaced, is splashed everywhere. So, the love/hate relationship comes full circle, or more accurately is a diagram of arrows pointing back and forth from producer to consumer, then from pure consumer to un-original producer, back to producer, and so forth. It is a never-ending cycle that only begins again with the "new thing" that captures popular attention.