EVALUATION AUDIENCE: JENKINS

Jenkins’ theory of participatory culture explores how digital technologies have transformed audiences into active participants who shape and circulate media. Concepts like textual poaching, convergence culture, and spreadable media are especially relevant to the analysis of long-form television drama (LFTVD), where fan engagement plays a crucial role in a show's cultural and commercial success. 

Stranger Things is a clear example of Jenkins’ participatory audience. Fans create memes, artwork, and fan fiction, showing how viewers rework elements of the show for their own creative purposes. The “Justice for Barb” campaign is a key example of convergence culture, where audience responses influenced the show's narrative direction in season two. Jenkins’ ideas help explain how fan voices can shape production decisions and deepen audience investment, especially when creators are responsive. This shows how participatory culture can strengthen audience loyalty and extend a show's lifespan, making Jenkins particularly useful for analysing this kind of engagement. Jenkins' theory also explains Stranger Things’ success as spreadable media. The series’ nostalgic visual style, 1980s references, and emotionally resonant characters lend themselves to adaptation and sharing across social media platforms. Fan edits, reaction videos, and themed content circulate widely, reinforcing the show's cultural presence. Cast members have used social media to comment on fan theories, illustrating two-way interaction between producers and audiences. These interactions show how Jenkins’ ideas illuminate the blurred boundaries between production and reception in contemporary television.

Deutschland 83, while less globally viral, also demonstrates participatory elements. It inspired blogs, discussion forums, and fan-made contextual guide, especially in international markets where Cold War history needed explanation. Fans have even contributed to unofficial subtitling and historical annotation, showing a more niche but meaningful form of convergence culture. Although its spreadability is more limited, Jenkins’ theory still helps explain how audiences can help circulate and support global television texts beyond their initial release or domestic broadcast. However, the more intellectual or specialist nature of participation here shows that not all content invites the same kind or scale of engagement.

Despite its strengths, Jenkins’ theory has important limitations. It places less emphasis on institutional structures such as ownership, funding, or regulation, which are often central to the production and distribution of LFTVDs. More significantly, it overlooks how meaning is constructed through media language and how representation shapes audience response. For instance, Jenkins does not account for how characters, ideologies, or visual codes influence participation, nor how issues of gender, race, and sexuality affect who participates and how. His theory assumes that all audiences have equal access and motivation to engage, which risks overlooking the cultural, ideological, or structural barriers to participation. These gaps limit the usefulness of Jenkins’ model for a complete analysis of how LFTVDs construct meaning and position their audiences.

In conclusion, Jenkins’ theory is highly valuable for understanding how audiences interact with LFTVDs like Stranger Things and Deutschland 83, especially in terms of online creativity and media circulation. However, his focus on audience activity overlooks crucial aspects such as representation, media language, and unequal access. For a full analysis of LFTVDs, Jenkins’ insights into participatory culture must be balanced with approaches that consider how meaning is constructed and whose voices are truly being heard.