How Media Convergence Manifests During a Natural Disaster


By Bernarda Vasquez

-----

A few days ago, right as I was talking to a relative in Ecuador, an earthquake occurred! Living in Russia, I don’t have access to my country’s traditional media, so it was through social networks that I was able to instantly know the magnitude of the event and people’s comments about the affected areas, and later to read the complete information from digital newspapers and watch news streamings. All the media touchpoints happened through my smartphone and this experience shows how media convergence happens in today’s life.

Since the beginning of 2000, technology and communication have developed in an interconnected way. The popularization of the Internet has put together computing, communication and content and has pushed media to take some digital routes. This results in media convergence, which refers to the relationship between the old and new media, without one necessarily replacing the other, but uniting and complementing themselves, allowing social interaction and reaching larger and varied audiences. 


The term Convergence Culture is introduced by Henry Jenkins to portray the phenomena of participating culture and collective intelligence. Jenkins described that people nowadays are more empowered to collaborate and participate in content creation and dissemination through different channels and platforms. Some examples of this are: blogs, Wikipedia, customer reviews.

This behavior was very noticeable with the reality show MasterChef Ecuador. Viewers eagerly followed every episode on TV, but also shared their recipes and culinary recommendations on social networks and offered their votes and support to participants through SMS. An off-screen community and engagement was created, on which depend the show’s development and future seasons.


Jenkins explains that convergence is the process of how media is not only consumed, but also produced. He identifies 5 types of convergence; the previously described Cultural Convergence is one of them. Another one is Economic Convergence, when a company has several products or services within the same industry. In Ecuador, the media holding Albavision controls 3 TV channels, 11 radios and 2 newspapers. The number three is Organic Convergence, which refers to our ability of multimedia multitasking, like watching the news while texting our friends or checking Instagram. Fourth is Global Convergence that explains how distant cultures can influence each other, like the impact of K-pop in teenage fashion influencers in Ecuador. Finally, technological convergence is when different technologies merge, which reminds me of pet cameras becoming popular in my country, where the owner can see their dogs through a mobile app and even talk to them.

There are different perspectives on how convergence affects culture. Writer Steven Johnson believes it is mentally stimulating and invites engagement, while writer Nicholas Carr thinks it’s distracting and interferes with deep thinking and high performance. From my perspective, development and change cannot be avoided, therefore media, as well as society and other industries, must be able to adapt. While I agree that people today have very short attention spans, I consider that knowing how to do short tasks, manage different media, be able to multitask, along with providing concise and real-time messages, are indispensable skills for our current media reality, which advances rapidly and globally. That is how, even though I am on the other side of the world, thanks to convergence, I was able to know right away and find solace that the earthquake did not cause severe damages in my country.


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The role of journalism In the development growth and decline of cultural phenomena

Image
By Zeinab Hassan       For years, it has been described how the digital revolution is undermining the importance of the media. But only recently have these effects become practically tangible and invisible. The classical media have lost their monopoly in many ways, their role as gatekeeper. They are no longer the only ones sending information to a large-scale audience - now everyone can post news. The media is no longer alone in controlling what information goes to the general public - everyone can get information from a wide variety of sources.    Journalists are no longer even the only ones who solely determine what news is important and widespread - this is what the algorithms of companies like Google or Facebook are now doing.    And as if the loss of meaning, power, and influence weren't bad enough. There is still a loss of income and hence resources for the production of high quality journalism that could prove that they are unique or irreplaceab...
Read more

Print media VS broadcast media

Image
By: Yara Hasan. In the field of journalism, the traditional media comprises print media and broadcast media   What are they? What are the similarities and differences? Let’s see.   Print media The phrase ‘print media’  is self-explanatory. Around 14-15 AD, it came into being. The printed press was invented by Johannes Guten Berg in Germany. Further, between 1605-1620 AD, newspapers originated.   Even in this age of globalization, newspapers are the most important medium of spreading news and information. Newspapers are termed as ‘democratizing medium.’ This is because it publishes the issues in an unbiased manner. It does not inculcate prejudice for the formation of one’s understanding     Broadcast media Television and radio are the traditional forms of media that fall into the category of broadcast media. It has the capacity of reaching a wider audience. It is the most powerful version of the media. It is so because television is an audiovisual medium. Th...
Read more

USA vs. RUSSIA: Information digital age, opportunities and challenges in the new socio-cultural world for media stakeholders

Image
By:   Bernarda Vasquez   |   Said El Marda   |   Yara Hasan   |   Papiya Mondal —---- Media has received the status of being the 4th pillar of democracy. Any government needs the judiciary, executive and legislative powers to run side by side with the media. However in some cases the media can get a lot of power and influence the population since they control the information. Both the US and Russian media have been accused of this action, but from different perspectives. Below will be an overview of the operation of the media industry and its stakeholders in each country, as well as its challenges and opportunities in the new digital era. USA Media Overview and Stakeholders:   The media in the United States is decentralized, most media are privately owned and only a few states have some regional public media. Content is mostly presented in English and in some cases and unfortunately, in lower quality in Spanish despite the fact that 13% of its pop...
Read more