A convergence culture: A change in media power

A convergence culture is the collision of old media and new media and the change of outcome through multiple media platforms and how the relationship between producer and consumer has changed with the culture. Henry Jenkins talks about the Convergence culture as being made out of media convergence, participatory culture and a collective intelligence. The convergence within the media has allowed the use of content to travel across different media platforms and therefore change the intended way the content was meant to be consumed. The circulation of the this content can be vast by tracing content such as the 2001 'Bert is Evil' movement we can see that from the 'sesame street' characters image to Photoshop, internet, publisher, posters, CNN coverage to TV. 

Of course the flow of the content is heavily dependent on the activity of the consumer. Because of the change within the media consumers now have more access to contribute and this has lead to the creation of forums where a Collective intelligence of consumers is combined. It was coined by the french cyber-theorist Pierre Levy. It is what helped create the participatory culture that Henry Jenkins describes as an "added incentive for us to talk among ourselves about the media we consumer." (Jenkins, 2008, p.3). This proves that the media and technology will evolve around the human nature to collect content and information and that cyberspace is crafted by the consumer. Many media theorists predicted that new media would over come the old media completely. Nicholas Negropontes said "the media barons of today will be grasping to hold on to their media empires tomorrow" (Negropontes, 1995, p.32). "companies that published newspapers, magazines and books did very little else; their involvement with other media was slight" (Pool, 1983, p.4). The media industry has changed within every branch to stay in control of the effects of the convergence culture. Companies such as Sony and Microsoft have been at the for front of the gaming industry and have recently been expanding their usual gamer market to the whole family as they know that moving with the culture means that they will stay in control of the new media by changing the approach of their old media methods. This is when convergence media is used. 

Bibliography: 

Negroponte, Nicholas (1995) 'Being Digital', New York Press

Ithiel de Sola, Pool (1982) 'Technologies of freedom', Cambridge mass.:Harvard University Press.

Jenkins, Henry (2008) 'Convergence Culture: Where new and old media collide', New York University Press.