Culture of the Future

Convergence ‘refers to a process, not an endpoint’, (Jenkins 2006, p.16); it’s to do with producers and consumers working together to create exciting ways of using technologies along with media. ‘Convergence is being shaped bottom-up by the participatory impulses of consumers, who want the ability to control and shape the flow of media in their lives’. (Jenkins 2006) For example, on Twitter, it was the consumer who created the use of "hashtags" as a new mode of consumption. This shows that technology cannot dictate its use, and as consumers become producers: changes are continuously developed into something that’s expressive and innovated.

It seems that every year, there are new gadgets on the market, and for the past few years companies like Samsung and Apple are trying to lure consumers into buying theirs. They have designed products that include multiple devices in one, such as, the well-known iPhone. It’s a ‘delivery technology’, (Jenkins 2006, p.13), which, media can be accessed on.  It often gets replaced or becomes outdated as times move on. The ‘old media never die(s)’, (Jenkins 2006, p.13); the medium will always be around for consumer to view but the tools used at a certain time to read these, may change. We can see evidence of this through updates on devices such as the iPhone (examples would include: 3G, 4, 4G). Jenkins theory called, ‘The Black Box Fallacy’, is the idea that, in the future, there will be one single black box, similar to iPhone, where all mediums will be able to be accessed. It will be, “The Godfather”, if you like, of all technologies. However, Jenkins believed this to be untrue as it ‘reduces media change to technological change and strips aside the cultural levels’. (Jenkins 2006, p.15)

 ‘Each old medium was forced to coexist with the emerging media’. (Jenkins 2006, p.14) This is what convergence is principally about. It demonstrates how media does not die when a new one is created, as Lisa Gitelman states, ‘printed words did not kill spoken words. Cinema did not kill theatre. Television did not kill radio’. (Jenkins 2006, p.14)

We are at the beginning of an era where consumers and producers must work together to change and revolutionise our media and culture. McLuhan (1969) acknowledged that, ‘media are often put out before they are thought out’, (Jenkins 2006), and so it is up to us as the consumer to figure out how it’s used. Convergence is more difficult that it seems but it ‘is coming and you had better be ready’. (Jenkins 2006, p.10)

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Bibliography

JENKINS, Henry (2006). Confessions of an Aca-fan: The offical webblog of Henry Jenkins. [online]. Last accessed 9 10 2013 at: http://henryjenkins.org/2006/11/eight_traits_of_the_new_media.html

JENKINS, Henry (2006). Convergence Culture: where old and new media collide. New York; London, New York University Press.