Media Convergence in Contemporary Society - Essay Example

Henry Jenkins: Convergence Culture Henry Jenkins has explored the way in which culture has converged, media and life becoming interlaced until one flows into the other creating a mesh of communication and life that intermingles almost effortlessly. Freedom is one of the central ideas that link the consumer to the communication of the world, converging to an extent that not only does the information have an effect on the consumer, but the consumer can create an effect on the world through interacting with the new media forms. Jenkins centers much of his argument upon the idea that freedom of the press has led to the establishment of the new media. Freedom is a large part of the way in which the convergence culture has been created, consumers now free to participate in the creation of communication. However, this culture is coming at a price. The technologies are improving and growing at fast rates that are difficult to continue to upgrade. The disposable culture has slipped to higher priced electronic items, making the use of the true world now a matter of socioeconomic status. As well, in having a culture that is so interlaced that a high school student has access to affecting world politics, credibility is suffering. In creating a convergence culture, freedoms have emerged that have broadened the interconnectivity of the world, but the price of these freedoms effect economic and journalistic credibility, thus causing a high cost to the consumer. In introducing his article about Henry Jenkins’ book about convergence media, Horowitz relates the story with which Jenkins begins his discussion about convergence culture. He tells the story of an American high school student who put together images with Bert, a character from Sesame Street, through Photoshop. The theme of the series of pictures done by this young man was ‘evil Bert’ with pictures of Bert with Adolf Hitler, Pamela Anderson, and Osama Bin Laden. Someone from a Bangladesh publisher was looking for images on the web of Osama Bin Laden for anti-American posters. The picture of Bert and Bin Laden ended up on posters throughout the Middle East, which eventually landed the image on CNN (Jenkins 1: Horowitz). This story contains the essence of convergence culture, where a high school aged boy can create a cut and paste image that ends up on anti-American posters on the other side of the world, which in turn show up on an American news service. Convergence means that multiple disciplines are impacted by the way in which consumers and media communicators interact, the consumer of information reacting and acting against the inflow of information from those who put that information out into the world. In a convergence culture, the consumer and the media communicators become interchangeable the consumer often taking on the role of the communicator putting his own ideas out into the media. Jenkins states that convergence culture is the “place where old media and new media collide, where grassroots and corporate media intersect, where the power of the media producer and the power of the media consumer interact in unpredictable ways” (Horowitz). The new forms of media have allowed consumers to have a much larger freedom in determining how they spend their time. Which media outlet gains attention has become a matter of large numbers of options, the consumer able to now choose which news, entertainment, or activity to participate with during their idle time. No longer is the consumer locked to the 5 o’clock news or the morning or evening paper, but can choose which outlet to interact with at what time is convenient. Even television is no longer precisely defined by time slots because most television programs can be seen through at the internet at the viewer’s convenience. Freedom of the press has allowed for new media forms to emerge, communication transforming into a free flowing network of information, consumer driven, but founded upon the concept that ideas have a need to be shared (Convergence, Jenkins 258). Ideas become a living form, fighting to breath and live as they spread and multiply through open communication. The way in which people now envision themselves within the world has taken on a larger space, the world an open forum in which to express identity, sometimes to go as far as to create an identity within which a true sense of self can be explored. Reality and created reality have merged, thus creating various degrees of truth from which to connect. Freedom has become the freedom to develop an identity through forms of communication in which more and more people are finding an identity. One freedom that has not yet emerged is the freedom from multiple devices as suggested by the theory of the ‘black box’. In this theory, the future is built around a single device in which all types of communication can be accomplished. However, the problem with this scenario is that houses are filling with black boxes, each one having multiple purposes as well as redundant purposes (Horowitz). Readers that digitally download books are now replicated by iPads which can, not only read books, but store pictures, surf the web, and act as smaller word processors, which is replicated in the laptop which has added functions of graphics capabilities at lower power levels which is replicated in the home desktop computer. Televisions can now be hooked up to DVD players and game consoles, which also can show DVDs and download movies through internet connectivity to services like Netflix, and so on and so on. Of course, the cell phone is gaining on all of these devices as being multi-purpose where new media is involved. The central problem with the ‘black box’ theory is that manufacturers will continue to make new devices, none of which do it all, because without multiple devices to fulfill needs, consumer interest will be diverted. An example of this can be seen in the way that Best Buy is now providing for the concept of new and better products. Best Buy will now buy back old devices when new technologies have made them obsolete. An example of this is shown with some humor on their television advertisements where a man is having a 3-D television delivered, but on the side of the Best Buy truck that is delivering the product is a picture of the 4-D television that has just replaced the 3-D version (Best Buy). While it is intended to be an exaggeration, there is some truth to the idea that technology is moving faster than consumers can keep up with it. In addition, the ‘needs’ of today’s consumer are much higher in cost than those of previous generations. The freedoms that new technologies are providing are coming at a high maintenance cost to the consumer. Where earlier generations would buy a television and it would last for ten or fifteen years, television technologies are moving so fast that within a couple of years the set is dated and in need of replacing - or so the consumer culture believes. Convergence has happened on multiple levels of meaning. Convergence has happened between the consumer and the communicator, through the influences of one culture upon another, and through the ways in which technologies are now being combined to represent multiple functions. While achieving the single ‘black box’ has not occurred, looking at the emergence of the iPhone and all of the consequential Smartphone technologies allows one to see that devices are becoming multipurpose in such a way as to provide converged functions that are intended to provoke an easier lifestyle. The iPhone, as an example, is intended to not only provide telecommunications, but can connect to the internet in order to download applications or ’apps’ that can do everything from track weigh loss or diabetic blood testing information to provide connections for making dining reservations or purchasing movie tickets. The telephone is now capable of being a multi-purpose facilitator of life, converging the access of the internet with the events of life outside of the house; work, play, and all that is in between made more convenient by one small device. However, if those aspects were all that was needed in life, the phone would be the ‘black box’ predicted by those who have looked into the technological future. Jenkins states that “Media convergence is not an end-point: rather, it is an on-going process occurring at various intersections between media technologies, industries, content, and audiences” (Fans 154). Therefore, the needs of the consumers, the application of new ideas within technologies, the type of available content and the way in which all of those concepts come together and form a relationship is the way in which convergence takes place. Therefore, there is no final piece of technology that the American public can look to in order to fulfill their media needs. Where the family used to gather around the radio and then the television, consumers have become individually connected to the world. The need to share those connections within the home has been negated by the proliferations of a vast array of devices. People have no need to focus together on one form of media, but can individuate their experiences through varieties of devices that make each experience of the members of the family unique to their own freedoms to choose the content they wish to engage. According to Livingstone, “young people have media rich bedrooms, not necessarily reflecting a fascination for the media so much as the unsatisfactory nature of the alternatives” (147). In having so much available in which to focus media driven attention, family members can both have the freedom of individual choice, but suffer the loss of participating in activities together. The basic freedom of the new technologies, in that knowledge is now an interactive, free-flowing event where censorship is almost completely nullified has also opened the door for a large amount of content with no credibility. Metzger and Flanagin discuss the way in which new media has changed the kind of control that was once possible over the information that children could receive. They state that “(children are) a population that has been historically subject to a high degree of systematic and institutional control in the kinds of information and social communication to which they have access” (ix). Because of the nature of a convergence society, that control is more difficult to maintain and the lack of full credibility of the information that is available means that the freedom that is experienced that can promote mutually flowing communication can also lead to misinformation. The costs can be heavy where misinformation creates action that is based upon falsehoods. The theories that have been presented by Jenkins in regard to the convergence of culture are based upon the advantages that the new media has given to the global population. The consumer, technologies, and the global community have converged through the interactive nature of the internet and the complimentary programs that enhance those experiences. Freedom of the press has expanded to a freedom of information that allows for anyone to publish their ideas for access by the global community. The price for this convergence of culture, however, must be weighed for the costs that they are creating. Technology requires high investment and at the rate of advancement, the replacement and upgrading of technology affect the economic state of the consumer. In addition, communication freedoms cost the consumer through the loss of pure credibility in the reporting of information. This can also lead to misinformation proliferating across the new media outlets. Still, the new media and the convergence culture that has resulted is providing enrichments to lifestyles. While navigating the new media in order to best use them as services in life, keeping the costs in mind will help to moderate their effects for the best. Works Cited Best Buy. Best Buy Buyback Program: Outdated World. Youtube. 10 February 2011. Web. 27 March 2011. Horowitz, Steven. Convergence Culture by Henry Jenkins. PopMatters. 2 November 2006. Web. 27 March 2011. Jenkins, Henry. Convergence Culture: Where Old and New Media Collide. New York, NY [u.a.: New York Univ. Press, 2006. Print. Jenkins, Henry. Fans, Bloggers, and Gamers: Exploring Participatory Culture. New York: New York University Press, 2006. Print. Metzger, Miriam J, and Andrew J. Flanagin. Digital Media, Youth, and Credibility. Cambridge, Mass: MIT Press, 2008. Print. Livingstone, Sonia. Young People and New Media: Childhood and the Changing Media Environment. London: Sage, 2002. Print. Read More