mod 2 media convergence

• ‘the phenomenon where digitisation of content,

  as well as standards and technologies for the

  carriage and display of digital content, are

  blurring the traditional distinctions between

  broadcasting and other media across all

  elements of the supply chain, for content

  generation, aggregation, distribution and

  audiences’.
• “phenomenon involving the interconnection

  of information and communications

  technologies, computer networks, and media

  content. It brings together the “three C’s”—

  computing, communication, and content—

  and is a direct consequence of the digitization

  of media content and the popularization of

  the Internet.” (Terry Flew)
• It blurs the well defined

  boundaries of the

  traditional media (print,

  radio, TV) and the new

  media (internet, social

  media, mobile

  technology).
• One medium to access all information?

  • NO. Media convergence is an ongoing process,

  occurring at various intersections of media

  technologies, industries, content and

  audiences; it’s not an end state.

  • There will never be one black box controlling

  all media.
• Factors

  • Proliferation of channels

  • Increasingly ubiquitous nature of

  computing and communications

  —Media will be everywhere, and we will use all

  kinds of media in relation to one another.
• Now and in the future...

  We will develop

  • New skills for managing information

  • New structures for transmitting information

  • New creative genres that exploit the

  potentials of emerging structures
• Professor Henry Jenkins,

  University of Southern California

  • Convergence requires media

  companies to rethink old

  assumptions about what it

  means to consume media,

  assumptions that shape both

  programming and marketing

  decisions.
• • If old consumers were

  assumed to be passive,

  the new consumers are

  active.
• • If old consumers were

  predictable and stayed where

  you told them to stay, then

  new consumers are

  migratory, showing a

  declining loyalty to networks

  or media.
• • If old consumers were

  isolated individuals, the

  new consumers are more

  socially connected.
• If the work of media

  consumers was once silent

  and invisible, the new

  consumers are now noisy

  and public.
• Media Convergence

  Networked Digital Media in Everyday Life
• Four Dimensions of Media Convergence


  • Technological
  • Industrial
  • Social
  • Textual
• Technological Convergence


  The combination of computing, communications and content around networked digital media platforms
• Industrial Convergence


  The engagement of established media institutions in the digital media space, and the rise of digitally-based companies such as Google, Apple, Microsoft and others as significant media content providers
• Social Convergence


  The rise of social network media such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube, and the growth of user-created content
• Textual Convergence


  The re-use and remixing of media into what has been termed a 'transmedia' model, where stories and media content (for example, sounds, images, written text) are dispersed across multiple media platforms
• Emerging issues

  1. Social, political, economic and legal disputes

  due to conflicting goals of consumers, producers

  and gatekeepersContradictory forces push both toward

  cultural diversity and toward homogenization,

  toward commercialization and toward

  grassroots cultural production.
• Emerging issues


  • Media ownership
  • Participation gap
• Media ownership

  • Improve value of service
  • Flexibility of topics
  • Contributors' competence
  • Enable technological developments
  • Change the elitism of media professionals
  • Create new general awareness
• Participation gap

  • Encourage audiences to participate in the process of content creation
  • Requires extended access to modern technologies
  • Requires familiarity with the new forms of media
  • Requires developing certain skills
  • Certain stakeholders remain neglected and unable to fully participate in the new media culture
• Multiple forms of media convergence are leading us toward a digital renaissance—a period of transition and transformation that will affect all aspects of our lives