Convergence Culture

Gone are the days when the humble mobile phone was the size of a brick and its sole purpose was making phone calls. Made possible through the convergence of software, services and hardware, mobile phones have transformed to become our pocket-sized MP3 players, personal navigation systems, digital cameras, gaming consoles and multimedia computers. Today, movies made on mobile phones can even compete for prizes in international film festivals (Jenkins, 2006:4). Likewise, mobile phone users can listen into major concerts across the globe (Jenkins, 2006:4). Furthermore, this piece of technology is always connected, allowing users instant access to an array of single use devices – all in the one nifty gadget.

However, convergence is not just restricted to the integration of old and new media technology. Proven in engendering great technological, industrial, cultural and social change, convergence refers to the “flow of content across multiple media platforms, cooperation between multiple media industries (Jenkins, 2006:2) and the changing relationship and interaction between media producers and media consumers.

More recently, this changing relationship between producers and consumers has given rise to a convergence culture, “where the power of the media producer and the power of the media consumer interact in unpredictable ways” (Jenkins, 2006:2). By lowering production and distribution costs, expanding the range of available delivery platforms, enabling consumers to annotate, appropriate, recirculate and archive media content, new media technology has given consumers a greater ability to participate in an emerging convergence culture (Jenkins, 2006:18).

In 2001, Dino Ignacio, a high school student, gained world wide attention and caused international controversy with a series of “Bert is Evil” images posted on his website. With a little help from Photoshop, Ignacio created images depicting Sesame Street’s character, Bert, engaging in a number of scandalous acts with notorious people (Jenkins, 2006:2). By changing the context of the character’s image, Ignacio was able to transform the way people think about Bert. It is situations like these that clearly exemplify the potential power of the media consumer in the convergence culture.

Whilst corporations still have greater power than the individual consumer, convergence now allows for consumers to “seek out new information and make connections among dispersed media content” (Jenkins, 2006:3). Furthermore, individual media consumers are able to interact with other individual media consumers, consequently facilitating for the sharing of information and collective intelligence.

As individual media consumer becomes more involved and empowered, it will be interesting to see how media companies, governments, mass media empires and businesses react to the convergence culture. Without doubt laws will need to change, governments will need to deregulate and businesses will have to alter the way they function. Furthermore, producers will certainly need to embrace this new participatory culture and change their perception of “what it means to consume media” (Jenkins, 2006:18).

Reference
Jenkins, Henry. (2006). Introduction: “Worship at the Altar of Convergence” in Jenkins, Henry, Convergence culture: When new and old media collide, New York: New York University, pp.1-24.