Let's Spread The News!!!!!!!

Ok, so the hot topic for DIGC202 last week was Convergence and unfortunately, due to a certain annotated bibliography being due - I was unable to get my blog written in time. Still - it is and will continue to be a hot topic for quite a while to come, it seems. Why? Because, thanks to convergence -  Media is everywhere. We are living in a convergence culture. (See: Jenkins article "Worship at the Alter of Convergence")

And as always - with media comes social consequences/benefits (whichever way you tend to lean).

Jenkins lays these out for us quite well. It will alter the relationship between existing technologies, industries, markets, genres and audiences.... it will alter the logic behind how media industries operate and how we as media consumers process news and entertainment. I thought I'd just have a quick look through this point today as it was one of the key things that stood out for me this week.

Convergence alters the relationship between existing technologies:
Yes, I agree with that. An easy example of this is the relationship between mobile, camera and mp3 is now very different thanks to the smartphone. While technology used to be separate, we are seeing an increase in different forms of media combining and merging to become super media appliances for our "convenience."

Convergence alters the relationship between existing industries, markets and audiences:
True. The way that industries, corporations, marketing and promotions act and think has had to change dramatically to suit the new times. In the past, a company could be pretty sure their advertisements would be reaching the audience by simply placing it in a newspaper, television or even radio! This was because this was the primary source of information and it could be assumed that most people would be reading this. Now? We get our information largely from other sources (see: social networking, internet) which are much harder for companies to control in the traditional manner of simple advertisements. Instead, they need to act smarter, think intuitively and change their marketing strategies. That is where we start to see a product being able to do multiple things in order to suit a wider audience (e.g. Jenkin's line: "what was mom going to do with the game console when her kids were at school?"). This is where we see companies encouraging consumer's to spread the news about their products or about a promotion in exchange for rewards, benefits, discounts etc.

Therefore the way that media industries operate and the way we consume news and information is now very different. However, I believe it is still inherently, human nature. We are people who crave human contact. We like to socialise and essentially, the reason why this new system of networking works is because it emphasises the network. I like to read things that my friend's and family recommend to me because I know that it will surely be something that interests me. I am less cynical of using a product recommended to me by my friend as opposed to one recommended to me by an annoying advertisement on tv. I am more likely to listen to my network of friends rather than the capitalist advertiser.

It is this new world that the advertiser is now starting to use and abuse - but in the end, it is still up to us to spread the news!