Convergence Culture. Henry Jenkins
debate from week to week.
The online community was fascinated to discover what it was like to work together, several thousand strong, in making sense of what they were watching, and they were all using recently acquired VCRs to go back through the tapes, again and again, looking for what they had missed. As one fan commented, “Video recording has made it possible to treat film like a manuscript, to be pored over and deciphered.” Those on the periphery were astonished by the kinds of information they could compile and process, sometimes confusing the combined knowledge of the group with individual expertise: “Tell me! Tell me! How many times are people watching TP? Do you take notes on every subject as you are watching? Or, when a question comes up do you drag out each of the episodes, grab a yellow pad, some popcorn and start watching? Do you have a photographic memory? … Do you enjoy making the rest of us feel stupid?”
While most critics complained that Twin Peaks became so complicated that it was nearing incomprehensibility as the season continued, the fan community began to complain that the series was becoming too predictable. The community’s ability to pool its collective resources was placing new demands on the series that no television production of the time would have been capable of satisfying. To keep themselves entertained, they were spinning out elaborate conspiracy theories and explanations that were more interesting, because they were more layered than would ever be aired. In the end, they felt betrayed because Lynch could not stay one step ahead of them. This should have been our first sign that there was going to be tension ahead between media producers and consumers. As one disappointed fan protested, “After so much build up, so much analysis, so much waiting and so many false clues, how can any answer totally satisfy the anticipation that has built up. If WKLP is firmly resolved on the 11/10 episode we will all be in for a huge let down. Even those who guessed right will only celebrate and gloat briefly and then be left empty inside.” Television would have to become more sophisticated if it wanted to keep up with its most committed viewers.
From there, they start narrowing things down by looking at the demands of the production. Wezzie describes the process: “We look at latitude, climate, political stability, population density, road system, ports, accommodations, attractions, culture, predominant religion, and proximity to past Survivor locations.” Dan notes, “In Africa I overlaid demographic maps of population, agricultural areas, national reserves, tourism destinations and even city lights seen from satellites at night. Sometimes knowing where Survivor can’t be is important. That’s how I found Shaba Reserve.”
Wezzie is the people person: she works their network to pull together as much data as she can. Wezzie adds, “Then Dan works his magic!” Dan has developed contact with the Denver-based Space Imaging Company, owner of IKONOS, a high-resolution commercial remote-sensing satellite. Eager to show off what their satellite can do, IKONOS took snapshots of the location for Survivor: Africa that Dan had identified from 423 miles in space, and upon closer scrutiny, they could decipher specific buildings in the production compound, including the temporary production buildings, the tribal council site, and a row of Massai-style huts where the contestants would live, eat, and sleep. They take the snapshots from space because the security-conscious Burnett negotiates a “no fly zone” policy over the location. Dan uses the Com Sat (Communications Satellite) images and sophisticated topographical maps to refine his understanding of the core locations. Meanwhile, Wezzie researches the ecosystem and culture. Everything she learns ends up on Survivor maps and becomes a resource for the fan community. And, after all of that, they still sometimes get it wrong. For example, they focused a lot of energy on a location in Mexico, only to learn that the new series was going to be filmed in the Pearl Islands near Panama. They weren’t totally wrong, though—they had identified the location for a production company filming another reality television series.
The fan community has come to trust Wezzie and Dan to do an incredible amount of homework and ensure the accuracy of their posts. They also have a reputation as neutral observers who speak from above the fray. On the one hand, it was pretty cheeky for ChillOne to try to correct their map on his first post, a volley over the bow of the established spoiling community. On the other, it was smart, because the geographical information was the most easily confirmed. He posted some images with his very first message, and Wezzie and Dan were able to authenticate those images on the basis of weather conditions, tide level, and other geographical details. Over and over, people said they wouldn’t have believed ChillOne if he hadn’t been able to prove, beyond reasonable doubt, that he had actually been to the production location.
Over time, the Sucksters develop an intuition about whether alleged “intel” smells right or not. Shawn, a longtime spoiler, explained:
If it is a first time poster, it is normally written off as not very credible. You don’t trust first time people. You have to wonder why NOW of all the times they could have posted. If the person has posted before and has been involved with the spoiling before, that would add credibility to their posts. … Nobody can know for sure the poster is lying until after the fact but once that person is found to be lying, they are never trusted again and they are pretty much blacklisted.
Many people felt that ChillOne knew the form and rhetoric of spoiling a little too well for a first-time poster, even one who had lurked for a while, and so they were convinced that the name, ChillOne, was a second identity—a “sock puppet”—for a longtime poster. Tell us who you really are, they begged, so we can check out your previous posts. ChillOne, however, never indulged such requests and continued to give bits of information. The community wasn’t going to be satisfied with some tidbits about the location and a few photographs, though. They wanted the “good stuff,” and they had every reason to think ChillOne was holding out on them. The issue was already on the table with the very first response to his original post: “Were there any Survivors that stayed at the hotel (i.e. loser lodge)? Were you able to get any leads on who might have been on the show?”
And then, at 7:55 P.M. on January 9, just a few minutes after his first post, ChillOne opens a can of worms:
As far as contestants … Yes, I do have information on this as well. What I can share is that you will find your first physically handicapped contestant on S6 … a woman who is hearing impaired (deaf). I will share more contestant information over the coming months. I will tell you that I do NOT know the entire “cast list.” I do NOT know last names either. I only know the first names of about a handful of contestants and the basic descriptions of a few more.
From there, the next response from the Sucksters is predictable:
I don’t want to cause you any burden or trouble, but why wait? Can you tell us.
Why are you holding out on the contestants’ names and descriptions? Let’s have ’em!
It would be fantastic to have the first names before the official release on Monday.
If you do not wish to release the names that you do know, then could you give us a hint to whether any of the speculated contestants we have are on the show?
Spoiling follows a logical sequence. The first phase is focused on identifying the location, because the impact of the production is felt first where the series was shot. The second phase is focused on identifying the contestants, since the second impact is felt on the local communities where these “average Americans” come from. The collective has its feelers out everywhere and responds to the slightest brush. As Shawn explained, “The locals can never keep their mouths shut.” Milkshakey hears a rumor that a girls PE coach at his local high school might be on Survivor and starts pumping her current and former students for any information he can get. A small-town newspaper hints that some local might have been in the running for a million dollars. Sooner or later, it comes back to the Sucksters.
Sometimes, it takes a little effort. The Ellipsis Brain Trust tracked down the name of the person who designed the CBS Survivor Web site, hacked into their hotmail account, and found a single entry, a list of URLs that were to be acquired immediately, sixteen in all, each bearing the name of a man or woman. (There are sixteen contestants on each series of Survivor.) From there, the members of the EBT divided the listed names and began to investigate to see if they were real people. In most