Jenkins speaks of the now more visible media spectatorship and I suppose he means the improved abilities that allow viewers to react to the media content that is presented to them. For example, the Internet communities that focus on a certain television series or movie. People can come together and share their opinions more easily than before the whole Internet revolution, that allows for faster communication. Not that it was impossible for them to communicate before, but the Internet is much more massive way of sharing than the circulation of letters or the occasional fan gathering. It is indeed easier to monitor or to be part of a community than, say, twenty years ago.

Jenkins is right in claiming that the viewer is not liberated through these new media technologies. First of all, not everybody has access to the Internet and not everyone visits online discussion boards. Second, the ability to discuss programs has always existed and a more widespread availability does not mean that a person is suddenly not at al susceptible to the messages that media try to deliver to them. The possibility of a negotiated or oppositional reading is there, but this is not thanks to the new technologies, it has always been there. It is thanks to people becoming more critical of their governments, media conglomerates etc.