Black Mirror’s “15 Million Merits” depicts a society that is so surrounded by media and new technology that it consumes their entire lives. Peddling on a mechanical bike and forcing participants to indulge in media such as biking games, talent competitions, and adult entertainment keep this technological utopia going. This is due to the increase in credits participants get through consuming media on their bikes. It takes 15 million credits to be a contestant on an American Idol or X-Factor type competition show called Hot Shot. The members of this society peddle and consume more media in order to become new media themselves.
According to Henry Jenkins in Convergence Culture participatory culture is “Culture in which fans and other consumers are invited to actively participate in the creation and circulation of new content,” (331). The individuals in Black Mirror lived in a participatory culture when viewing media. The audience saw the character Bing wake up every morning and shoo the alarm clock rooster away. He would signal whether or not he wanted to continue to view the media on the screen. The only way for Bing and the other members of this society to function within the walls they lived in was to participate. By doing so their credits increased, which led Bing to purchase a ticket for his friend Abi so she could participate even more in Hot Shot.
Jenkins argues that the power dynamic is not exactly equal when studying participatory culture. “Corporations—and even individuals within corporate media—still exert greater power than any individual consumer or even the aggregate of consumers,” (3). In Black Mirror there seems to be three main individuals that are publicly in control. The three judges of Hot Shot give those who save credits and participate further direction when they want to produce media. Abi was advised to be part of the adult entertainment while Bing was convinced to take his act (that was intended to express his hatred towards that media driven society) and perform it weekly through the same media outlets that consumed him before. The control these judges had on this society was massively influential.
According to Henry Jenkins in Convergence Culture participatory culture is “Culture in which fans and other consumers are invited to actively participate in the creation and circulation of new content,” (331). The individuals in Black Mirror lived in a participatory culture when viewing media. The audience saw the character Bing wake up every morning and shoo the alarm clock rooster away. He would signal whether or not he wanted to continue to view the media on the screen. The only way for Bing and the other members of this society to function within the walls they lived in was to participate. By doing so their credits increased, which led Bing to purchase a ticket for his friend Abi so she could participate even more in Hot Shot.
Jenkins argues that the power dynamic is not exactly equal when studying participatory culture. “Corporations—and even individuals within corporate media—still exert greater power than any individual consumer or even the aggregate of consumers,” (3). In Black Mirror there seems to be three main individuals that are publicly in control. The three judges of Hot Shot give those who save credits and participate further direction when they want to produce media. Abi was advised to be part of the adult entertainment while Bing was convinced to take his act (that was intended to express his hatred towards that media driven society) and perform it weekly through the same media outlets that consumed him before. The control these judges had on this society was massively influential.
The characters in “15 Million Merits” all peddled and consumed media in order to gain credits that only led them to intangible rewards. This type of labor is defined by Tiziana Terranova in her article “Free Labor: Producing Culture for the Digital Economy” as immaterial labor. “Immaterial labor can be understood to pervade the social body with different degrees of intensity. This intensity is produced by the processes of “channeling” a characteristic of the capitalist formation, which distributes value according to its logic of profit,” (42). The more credits Bing, Abi, and the other characters gained, the more chance they had of enjoying the benefits designed by the creators of that community. Bing however describes the rewards of having these credits as “nothing” since there is no tangible reward. The people within this society purchased clothing items for their digital characters, spent credits on artificial food, and on tickets to become just another source of media content. If the characters did not follow this trend, they were forced to become yellow suited garbage collectors that were constantly looked down upon through the media that was being constantly consumed. Video games and TV specials focused on the negative characteristics these “non-followers” had. The capitalist formation demonstrated through the public leaders of Hot Shot focused on perfecting the human body and mocking those who did not reflect that image and second by placing value on talent and not the average human. The reward was to be the media and fully participate or suffer the consequences of being an outcast within that society. The cultural power of those who participated was much stronger than those who refused to do so. The most rebellious character in the end decides to join that same cultural powerhouse as a media producer. Bing has his tangible piece of glass at the end that once represented rebellion and freedom from the media powerhouse that controlled him. However, it is that same piece of glass that is then put up in the digital media marketplace that could be purchased with credits for those who continued to peddle away.