In explaining spreadable media, Jenkins also explained how the means to produce media has also spread. The youth groups and church groups they courted spread that media.” Instead, that video reached 77 million people in four days and 100 million in ten days. “Jason Russell of Invisible Children and the ‘KONY 2012’ video thought after producing more than ten documentaries in his career, that he’d have a half million views in 2 months. If you’re lucky today, your independent film will get picked up by one of the bigger distributors, but increasingly, digital distribution is shaped on a grassroots level rather than a top-down model.

“Spreadable media is about how circulation shifts the relationships between media makers and their public. Talking with Indiewire, Jenkins explained why understanding spreadable media was key to succeeding as an independent media producer. He’s also at work on his new book, co-written with Sam Ford and Joshua Green, “Spreadable Media: Creating Value and Meaning in a Networked Culture,” which will be released in January 2013, and another book, a conversation about youth and participatory politics with Mimi Ito and danah boyd. Her current book project, Millennial Media, explores digital authorship and fandom in the millennial generation.Movie Lovers We Love: Nick Dawson Unleashes the Clues to IFP & Filmmaker Magazine’s Secret Film Club Screenings Louisa Ellen Stein is Assistant Professor of Film and Media Culture at Middlebury College, and is coeditor of the collections Teen Television and Sherlock and Transmedia Fandom. She serves on the board of Transformative Works and Cultures, and is currently working on a book project based on her dissertation, 'Revenge of the Fanboy: Convergence Culture and the Politics of Incorporation,' addressing the gendered tensions surrounding contemporary fan culture and fan studies. Suzanne Scott is a Mellon Digital Scholarship Postdoctoral Fellow at Occidental College.

His books include: Hop on Pop: The Politics and Pleasures of Popular Culture, Convergence Culture: Where Old and New Media Collide, and Fans, Bloggers, and Gamers: Exploring Participatory Culture.

He was director of MIT's Comparative Media Studies Program for more than a decade.

Henry Jenkins is the Provost's Professor of Communication, Journalism, Cinematic Arts, and Education at the University of Southern California.

Textual Poachers by Henry Jenkins