Convergence Culture

1

Convergence culture

Tom, Ollie and Dan

2

What is convergence culture?

Convergence culture is the idea that media combines together into one, it is the modern development of media in a world that is constantly changing.

It is a concept which Henry Jenkins is critical of, he says “there will never be one black box controlling media”

Jenkins believes that it is more complex than just putting everything into ‘one box’, he believes there are 5 main processes involved (see slides 4-9)

3

History

H

istory teaches us that old media never dies, only delivery

technologies.

O

ld media just evolves due to changes in audience and social

status.

A

s one medium establishes itself in the “media ecosystem” it will

never go away as no single medium ever dominates the market.

4

The five processes of convergence culture (Henry

Jenkins)T

echnological convergence

E

conomic convergence

S

ocial convergence

C

ultural convergence

G

lobal convergence

5

Technological convergence

W

hen words images and sounds that can physically be seen heard

and touched are transformed into digital pieces of information.

I

t is the theory that different forms of media are coming together

to perform similar tasks.

T

he idea that some older forms of media are becoming digitized.

6

Economic convergence

Henry Jenkins claims that Economic integration is the

integration of the entertainment industry. An example of this

is AOL Time Warner, a converged company that now controls

the interests in film, music, games, books and even real

estate. As a result trans media exploitation has arisen in

branded properties such as Pokémon and harry potter.

7

Social/organic convergence

J

enkins believes that the social/organic converge process is what

happens when people process information themselves/in their

head.

A

n example of organic convergence he uses in the text is a school

kid watching baseball on television, listen to techno on he stereo,

word processing a paper and writing an email to friends.

8

Cultural convergence

C

ultural convergence defines contact and interaction between two or more countries.

I

t is the expression of new forms of creativity at the intersections of various media

technologies, industries and consumers.

W

hen media can be experienced on many different platforms for example films being

downloaded, watched on games consoles, watched on TV or in the cinema.

D

ifferent levels of communication that storytellers use individually toi communicate

different kinds and levels of narrative information, using each medium seperately to its

best ability.

9

Global convergence

H

enry Jenkins states that Global convergence is the

cultural hybridity that results from the international

circulation of media content. For example, Asian

popular cinema intensely alters the entertainment

coming out of Hollywood. Furthermore, world music has

grown due to media convergence on a global scale.

10

Summary

To conclude, media convergence is now at its peak.

The ability for any average person to be able to sit in

one chair and be able to watch TV, listen to music,

social network with friends, research information and

view images and video is all down to the media

convergence culture especially for example in forms of

the internet.