The Convergence Culture

     Convergence culture is the combination of new media and old media within a single piece of media work and the coming together of different media products/technology. The easiest and most common example of this is your smart phone, they’re able to do almost anything – you can watch television, listen to music, record videos/take pictures, play games, communicate with people through text messaging or calling, access different social media platforms and the list goes on. Cell phones today are probably the best example of convergence because it joins together multiple media technologies into one single device, which a lot of new devices do this because it allows many media technologies to form one product to perform many different tasks. This is what the new generations want, whichever device can perform more tasks and has the best features is the one more commonly chosen.

     The term convergence culture is a term coined by Henry Jenkins in his book Convergence Culture: Where Old and New Media Collide (2006). Jenkins’ understanding of convergence is primarily a cultural process where convergent practices include both the consumption and creation of media. He focuses on the effects of media convergence and the combination of various media that offer new forms of communication and understanding between different media sources. The more our group continued to look and read Jenkins’ work we have become very interested in it and had many discussions on different forms of convergence along with the positive and negative effects it can have on society. Despite many new creations that have resulted from convergence, like new technology devices releasing, there are also conflicts when opposing ideas collide.

     Convergence also takes a role in the social aspect of things users may utilize multiple media technologies simultaneously, such as listening to music while watching TV or playing video games. Something commonly done that our group has noticed is many people will watch one sporting event on TV or even in person, but continue to check their ESPN app on their phone to check other scores or updates from other games going on that day. Media convergence is what makes people dependent on media, individuals now a-days can’t put their phones down for 10 minutes or leave the house without it. The convergence of media products means that in theory, we do not have to leave our homes because almost everything can be achieved at the touch of a button.

     In conclusion these multiple forms of media convergence are leading us to a period of transformation that will affect all parts of our lives and those to come. It’s sparking a social, political, economic and legal disputes because of conflicting goals of the producers and consumers. The advancements in the different forms of convergence are ever-changing and the advances in technology are progressing rapidly, some of the older generations have a hard time keeping up. Our group shared experiences when we had to teach our parents, grandparents, aunts or uncles how to operate all these new devices and show them all the different programs they have right at their fingertips.

    As Henry Jenkins said, these contradictory forces are pushing towards cultural diversity, homogenization, commercialization and towards grassroots cultural production.