where did all the folk songs go?

For me, Jenkins' chapter on the interaction between grassroots communities, mass media, and a participatory culture brought it all together for me. I subscribe to a very liberal and open definition of authorship that can encompass creations in all kinds of media. Perhaps, as some might argue, it places one in danger of devaluing the concept of authorship as something special. However, I have concluded over the semester that I would rather embrace the published author and the self published author as equal on some level of creativity and ownership than let that title be awarded through a critic no matter how educated or by the winds of fortune that are all too often channeled by the powerful for their own ends. END of RANT.

Seriously though, I think that Jenkins is on to something when he points out that the folk culture never completely died, it just was overshadowed by mass media. Mass media, in turn, could ignore it when their "intellectual property" was recycled into folk culture since it wasn't so obvious. With the advent of the Internet and digital technologies, mass media discovered competition for audiences in its own back yard and infringement on its trademarks that reached a large number of people. What they forgot in the years since mass media took over was the vibrant potential of working with grassroots culture to make a better product.

Likely one of the last examples of mass media working with grassroots communities is the old Marx Brother's movies. Their early films were cobbled together from their vaudeville routines. Later films were taken to the road where the brothers would test out audience reactions on their bits making small alterations to get the biggest laughs. In contrast to today, television shows have their pilots and films have their advance screenings but months of audience feedback are not the norm. However, it seems that at least some are trying out these strategies with beta testers in the game industry and increasing audience involvement in other productions.