Final Project

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WEeqHj3Nj2c (accessed 6/3/2008).

This video shows a collection of movie clips from an activity that is called parkour, or freerunning. From my experience in watching youtube videos, this activity involves the individual surmounting urban obstacles in what seems to be a quest to do whatever someone wants in terms of one interacting with his or her environment.

The video: posted by youtube.com user Sauloca

The song: "Paper Wings" by Rise Against on Siren Song of Counter Culture (2004) album (http://www.amazon.com/Siren-Song-Counter-Culture-Against/dp/B0002KQOGW/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=music&qid=1212552148&sr=8-1, accessed 6/4/2008).

Lyrics: http://www.sing365.com/music/lyric.nsf/Paper-Wings-lyrics-Rise-Against/F6558E047E24A03048256EF0000C3641 (accessed 6/4/2008).


Video: combination of both musical media and video media. In youtube, the users post media that they have compiled or composed. The users may create a reflection of their own perspective in the work. Parkour= exciting. Therefore, not just amazing video but also exciting rock music combined with basically a "highlight tape" for parkour, showing the best doing incredible stunts instead of showing poor practice runs. The youtube user's opinion towards his or her won interests affects what kind of things end up getting posted. If one likes parkour and enjoys its excitement, then one would probably want others to feel the same way about the same topic. In this way, we are not forming impressions of media that we see; instead, we are reflecting the opinions that the media has crafted to make tolerable for other people.

This is an example of Henry Jenkin's "convergence culture" from page 2 of his work, Convergence Culture: Where Old and New Media Collide (http://www.amazon.com/Convergence-Culture-Where-Media-Collide/dp/0814742955/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1212553007&sr=8-1 accessed 6/4/2008) because individuals have more power to spread their opinions than ever. At 12:17 am Wednesday morning, the video had 7,259,945 people who have viewed the video. This is a massie amount of people who have been exposed to one individual's notions on parkour, as reflected in his or her work.