Convergence

by Peyton Paxson (2010)

AT the same time that we are witnessing disaggregation, we are also experiencing convergence. The iPhone or Blackberry that we carry in our pocket is our telephone, camera, texting device, e-mail portal, planner, music playing device, video playing device, and Internet connection. At some airports, our cell phone can also function as our boarding pass.


For at least a decade, media observers have discussed the process of media converging from traditional types (television, newspaper, radio, etc.) to a single electronic online platform. This means more than using the same device to access all media content. One of the best-known scholars of media convergence, Henry Jenkins of the University of Southern California, argues that media convergence is actually five different processes:

• Technological convergence through digitization of media content. Photographs, videos, films, music, and words can all be captured and transmitted in digital form. 
• Economic convergence through corporations seeking synergies. Less than a dozen corporations control the bulk of our entertainment media.
• Social convergence through consumers’ use of multiple types of media simultaneously. Many of those reading this sentence are listening to music, and have their wireless phone/texting device powered on and close by.
• Cultural convergence through multiple platforms that allow consumers to create, mash-up, critique, and share media content. Media companies provide these forums in order to generate content that costs those companies little or nothing.
• Global convergence through the ability for consumers to interact with those in nearly every other society. In the process, cultures blend, as do ideas and beliefs.

Below we look at the first four of the processes that Jenkins identifies.

TECHNOLOGICAL CONVERGENCE

In your lifetime, the United States, perhaps the world, will become one large WiFi (wireless fidelity) hotspot. Electronic books and newspapers are already available through devices such as the iPhone, Blackberry, and Kindle. Technology firms are developing devices that resemble magazines in feel. These devices are the size of an ordinary magazine, with a flexible capability.

But this device is more than just an electronic magazine or newspaper. It will also provide Internet access, texting capabilities, and audio and video streaming.

The digital home. Imagine that you are at the grocery store and cannot remember which food items that you are running short of at home. Fortunately, you can turn on your mobile communication device, which will connect to your refrigerator. As you have placed items in and removed them from the fridge, a Radio Frequency Identification Device (RFID) tag on each item has recorded food usage. The device in your hand tells you that you need more orange juice. You may not even need to ask. Presume that your mobile device is powered on as you drive by the grocery store. Your smart refrigerator may text you to remind you about that orange juice problem. “Smart” refrigerators are among the types of home appliances that technology companies are designing with integrated communication systems. We may want to conserve energy, but have a comfortable house when we arrive home. We will be able to turn on the heating or cooling system as we get ready to head home from wherever we are. If we forget to adjust the thermostat before we leave for the day, the thermostat may text message us later to ask for permission to make that adjustment.

The discussion of digital homes equipped with smart appliances began many years ago. Thus far, it seems to be an idea ahead of the consumer demand curve. LG’s Internet Refrigerator, introduced several years ago for about $8,000, turned out to be a flop. However, recent events have seen both industry and consumers seeking “green” devices that are more energy efficient. If the ability to communicate distantly with one’s furnace, oven, or refrigerator begins to be seen as desirable by an increasing number of consumers, this technology will soon be available to many of us.

ECONOMIC CONVERGENCE

Many of us now have the same company providing our telephone, Internet, and television service. Although we may have over one hundred choices of television programming in our homes, most of the channels we have are controlled by less than a dozen companies. Many of these companies own a variety of different media. Companies strive to use their various assets in a complementary way. You have heard the expression, “one hand washes the other.” In business, the discussion is about leveraging assets to create a synergy.

A synergy uses two or more assets of a business to generate more revenue (money) than each single asset can generate individually. Perhaps one of the most remarkable examples of using multiple media platforms to create a set of synergies was Viacom’s marketing of Howard Stern. Stern’s radio program aired on Viacom-owned Infinity’s stations throughout the United States. His program was also recorded on video and shown late on Saturday nights on television stations owned by or affiliated with CBS (owned by Viacom). Stern wrote a book, Private Parts, published by Simon and Schuster (owned by Viacom). The book was made into a movie for Paramount Pictures (owned by Viacom). The movie was shown in National Amusement theaters (owned by Viacom). Clips from the movie were shown on MTV (owned by Viacom) and Stern pitched the book and the movie on his radio program. When the movie was released on home video, it was available for rent or purchase at Blockbuster (you guessed it— owned by Viacom). Viacom has since spun-off some of these com panies and Stern has moved to Sirius Radio. Yet at the time when Stern immodestly claimed to be “The King of All Media,” he may have been right. Viacom’s leveraging of Stern to generate synergies is only one example of how the world’s largest media firms use their corporate holdings to help each other.

Non-media industries. Media convergence affects many non-media industries. We will use the travel and tourism industry as an example. Imagine that you are going to take a trip to South America. Not sure when to go? You can check destinations’ weather and events online. You can then visit any number of travel websites to find the best airfares and hotel rates. If the airline prices are similar, various websites rate seats, cabin service, and airline food. Once you decide on an airline, you can select your seat online and order a special meal, such as kosher or vegetarian. Likewise, you can select the type of bed you want at the hotel and specify smoking or nonsmoking. Other sites provide restaurant reviews, shopping tips, and information about various attractions.

As you prepare for your trip, you can visit the airline’s website to see whether you will have a power port for your laptop or portable media device. You can also check the airline’s website for which movies will be playing on your flight; some airline websites offer links to movie reviews. Lousy movie or one you have already seen? Then it is time to load up your portable media device with music, videos, e-texts, and game applications to keep you busy on your long flight. However, you may not need to, as many airlines are now offering personal entertainment devices with choices of movies and television programs, multiple music channels, and various games to keep you occupied. Airlines are highly competitive, and know that passengers often choose a flight based on what types of amenities are available. As you leave for the airport, you can use your personal data device to check whether your flight is on time, and whether there are anticipated delays at any of the airports through which you will be traveling.

The travel and tourism industry provide only one example of how media convergence affects an industry. Convergence will continue to bring changes to many other industries as well. Yet convergence is not exclusive to business, as we see next.

SOCIAL CONVERGENCE

The death of Michael Jackson in June 2009 demonstrated the social power of media convergence. For many Americans, news of Jackson’s death came from television or radio announcements. Those who wanted more information surfed online for newsfeeds from Los Angeles news outlet, music outlets, and Jackson fan sites. The memorial tribute to Jackson on July 7, 2009 was broadcast live on television and streamed live on the Internet. Prior to the tribute, some of those who were able to obtain tickets sold them on eBay and Craigslist. Television stations and websites asked fans to text or e-mail their thoughts about Jackson and his career. These same television stations and websites offered to send updates by text message, e-mail, or Twitter to interested fans.

Fans of Jackson created tribute websites that received heavy traffic. Fans viewed videos of Jackson’s performances, stories about his death, fans’ comments, and related videos on YouTube. Sales of Jackson’s music soared. Billboard.com reported that Jackson occupied all 10 spots in the Catalog Album category’s top 10, the first time a single artist had done so. Over 5.6 million digital music tracks were sold in the two weeks following Jackson’s death and millions of additional tracks were downloaded illegally. Nearly 100,000 music videos were sold during the same two-week period, as were over 300,000 ringtones.

The reaction to Jackson’s death demonstrated how the media have changed from the old model, with a limited number of media firms creating content and directing their material at passive spectators, to a new model that is highly interactive and participatory, allowing multiple content creators to share their material. Fans were able to provide feedback to the media firms through text messages, tweets (Twitter messages), and e-mails, and were also able to connect with each other directly, without those media firms serving as intermediaries. Here, fans created their own passion communities, connecting with other fans all over the world.

The same month that Michael Jackson died, presidential elections were held in Iran. According to most observers, those working for incumbent president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad rigged the election. Many thousands of Iranians protested in the streets for weeks afterward. The Iranian government attempted to prevent any news of the election protests and the military’s violent reaction to those protests from being shown to Iranians and foreigners. The Iranian government found it relatively easy to block information about the protests distributed by accredited journalists representing traditional media firms. However, the Iranian government was virtually powerless against the average citizen. Too many Iranians held the ability to upload photographs, videos, and written and oral commentaries in their own hands.

Those following Michael Jackson’s death and the election in Iran did not use “a single black box,” as Henry Jenkins would point out. Instead, they used multiple platforms to experience these events together, such as some of the devices shown in Figure 10.2. Again, although the major media outlets participated in this convergence, they were only a few among millions of participants. This relative subordination of the major media represents a significant paradigm shift, as the media now must share information with us, rather than direct information at us.

CULTURAL CONVERGENCE

For many news outlets, the need to provide up-to-date content 24 hours a day, seven days a week makes it increasingly likely that these outlets are willing to rely on viewers themselves to provide some of that content. Chances are that your local television stations offer viewers a chance to upload their photographs and videos to those television stations’ websites. This is crowdsourcing—we create media content.

Media news crews cannot be everywhere that news happens. Many of us have the ability to record events as they happen with our personal media devices. Media news outlets find it challenging to balance timeliness with appropriateness: images of a bloody car accident or homicide scene may be accurate, but displaying those images may be beyond the boundaries of responsible journalism. One of the benefits of “citizen journalism” is that it allows us to witness events that may otherwise be suppressed by traditional media. Numerous examples of embarrassing or illegal behavior by public officials and the elite have been captured by passersby. These images, when communicated to others, often go viral, with an increasing number of people rapidly forwarding those images to others, and the parties involved are unable to suppress or distort our knowledge of those events.

An event does not have to be scandalous to go viral. Just as we see the long tail effect altering traditional media formats, it is changing content as well. We are constantly searching for “breaking news” and “developing stories,” which come and go quickly. Today, there are more news stories generated by more news sources than ever before, but each individual news story tends to hold our attention for a shorter length of time. Another issue driving the citizen journalism trend is news outlets’ effort to embrace the interactivity that consumers increasingly expect. Thus, traditional news media such as television and newspapers provide various methods for members of the public to provide feedback. We are increasingly being asked, “What do you think?” and what we think is being reported as news.

The democratization of expertise. It is safe to guess that many who are reading this have relied on Wikipedia more than once. Contributors who submit to Wikipedia do not need to hold advanced college degrees. For most subjects, anybody who cares to may submit; over 85,000 people have done so. If there is a question about the authenticity or accurateness of the information posted, the crowd of Wikipedia users decides. As is typical of crowdsourcing, this knowledge community creates content and evaluates content posted by others. Substandard or disputed information is subject to removal.

Because of crowdsourced knowledge, many of those individuals whom we once considered experts (and who understandably enjoyed that status) are finding their influence diminishing. We can read restaurant reviews written by food critics with trained palates in magazines and newspapers, or we can go online and see what other ordinary diners like ourselves have to say. Of course, the restaurants’ owners may have deviously placed some of those online reviews, but what is more important is that other reviews have just as much authority as those “placed” reviews have. Similarly, while we once relied on movie reviews in newspapers and magazines written by film critics who attended film school and have graduate degrees in journalism, today we may turn instead to what other moviegoers like ourselves have to say.

This reliance on the opinions of those we see as more like ourselves than the supposed experts leads to information cascades. We supplement the information we already have with what other people are saying. At their best, information cascades represent collective wisdom, with the different viewpoints of many individuals helping us choose wisely. At their worst, information cascades can produce a herd mentality in which we do or think things primarily because other people are.***