“Convergence is coming and
you had better be ready.”
(Jenkins, 2008, p. 10)
Like it or not, we live in a convergence culture. Media is changing around us, we no longer
have to go to the living room to watch television, we don’t have to buy a
newspaper to read today’s headlines and we don’t have to be sat at our
computers to be surfing the internet.
Convergence, in the present day, is a good thing for both media producers
and us media consumers. Media producers
have been handed new markets to expand into, while the consumers have an
endless wealth of mediums through which to access news and entertainment, both
at home and on the go. For example,
Netflix allows users to catch up on their favourite television shows or watch
films through several platforms, on our computers, our games consoles, on the
move through our smartphones, and most recently right back in our living rooms
with Smart TV.
One particularly impressive factor about convergence is how fast
it evolves; Jenkins discusses the factors that access plays in the movement of
convergence. “Throughout the 1990s, the primary question was one of access. Today, most Americans have some limited
access to the internet, say, though, that access is through the public library
or the local school.” (Jenkins, 2008, p. 23) What Jenkins says here is true; however we
must consider that this book was published in 2008. Since then the question of access is no
longer who has it, but who has the better means of access. With the introduction of Fibre Optic
Broadband, the internet is reaching speeds of up to 10 times faster than 3
years ago; this is allowing our Netflix streams to be in High Definition, our
online gaming experiences are more responsive and information reaches us faster
than ever before.
Convergence is a means through which media will and has evolved,
it has already started, and it doesn’t show any signs of slowing down.
Bibliography
Jenkins, H. (2008). Convergence Culture. New
York: New York University Press.
No comments:
Post a Comment
This is a class blog for students enrolled on the History and Analysis of New Media Module at The University of Ulster. Please keep comments constructive to help students progress with the given text