MAS
110. Convergent Media Essay.
With the developing of the technology, the
digital media are having a huge evolution in nowadays. More and more new
technology appears in our daily life. Those media platform almost have one
common feature, all of those new media are affected by the media convergent. In
the first part of this article, I will introduce the media convergence in our
daily life, and in the rest of the article, I will discuss the phenomenon of
the digital media convergence as the essential factor to the appeal of the advantage
and new media.
The media convergence, which first layout by Ithiel de Sola Pool in his book Technologies of freedom, is the merge of different media platforms. As Jerkin defined, the media convergence is the flow of content across multiple media platforms. (Jerkin, 2006) The convergence is all around us – smartphones with video, radio and the Internet, radio over TV platforms and the Internet and TV over mobile platforms including digital radio, and the Internet, all facilitated by the move to digital technologies. (Dwyer, 2010) The increasing of the new media appears in our daily life in recent years, the XBOX, the smartphone, the handheld, the iPad, the kindle, all of those products bring us such a special experience. The increasing numbers of the new media users bring the huge economic benefits to the companies, which will stimulate the development of the new media. Nowadays, take the smartphone for instance, unlike few years ago, the smartphone is no longer a platform that could just make a phone call or send the message, this platform now include the map, music and video player, the game platform, the internet, the e-book reader and almost everything that relate to our daily life. The competition of the smartphone is actually the competition of the better convergence of the multiple media platform. This means the evolution of the new media technology will continues its developing in the following years. However, not everyone could adapt to the evolution like this, such as Jenkins, they still prefer to use a cellphone, a real cellphone that without other multiple functions. Some of the product, such as John’s phone, release an ‘anti-new media’ cellphone, and got the well received by the users. It shows that how popular is the new media using in nowadays on the other hand. As Wilken and Sinclair, the mobile phone has been described by advertisers as the ‘next great conduit between consumers and advertisers. (Rowan & Sinclair, 2009)
To discuss the contribution that the media
convergence brings to the new media, there is no doubt that the internet is the
place that most effected by the media convergence. With the increasing number
of the video website, such as Youtube, the MTV online, the audience found that
they could not only watch what they want on the television. The media
convergence brings them more choices on the communication network. In Graham
Meikle and Sherman Young’s book: Media Converge: Network Digital Media in Everyday
Life, they argue that the media convergence can be understood into 4 parts,
which are the technological, the industrial, the social and the textual. The
textual part, which are the re-use and the remix of media into what has been termed
a model that named ‘Transmedia’, where stories and media content are dispersed
across the multiple media platforms, bring us the special experience on the
YouTube, or other media platforms. And the increasing number of the user of the
social network media makes the developing of the website such as Facebook,
Twitter, or the Micro-Blog in China. This social part makes that social website
become an essential part in our daily life. With the base of those social
networks, the information explosion becomes a normal phenomenon on the
Internet. One real-world example is the viral video. The viral video is a video
that become popular by sharing on the social website such as Facebook, Twitter
or YouTube, it could bring the huge increasing amount of the viewers. The
video, the advertising of the Old Spice, is the great example for this
phenomenon. The success of the video is not only brings the high visibility to
the Old Spice, also brings the high economic benefits to the company. This is
not the only issue that the viral video that could bring the economic benefits,
most of the movie company, began to use YouTube to publicize their trailer,
such as the Mission: Impossible, the Dark Knight, Prometheus, all those trailer
got the highly attention on the YouTube. And some video, such as KNOY 2012, the
movie got 50,000,000 viewer in the first week, this platform makes this documentaries
got the unprecedented attention.
This article introduces the media convergence,
and its contribution to the new media. There is no doubt that the media
convergence brings a huge contribute to the advantage and new media. The media
convergence is an essential step in the developing of the media, and as Jerkin
suggest, the old media will never die. And this kind of convergence brings us a
new way on the advertising. As we could see, the successful of the Old Spice,
clearly shows that the advantage of this way of propaganda. More and more
companies began to use the social website to spread their products. The appears
of the advantage and new media, not only bring the huge economic benefit in the
business area, also they makes the communication become more convenient. With
the increasing of digital media technology, the advantage and new media will
bring more special experience to us in such a long time.
Reference.
Dwyer, T. (2010) Media
Convergence, McGraw Hill,
Berksire, pp 1-23
Jenkins, H. (2006) Convergence
Culture, New York, New
YorkUniversity Press, pp 1-24.
Sinclair, John and Wilken, Rowan (2009) 'Waiting for the kiss of life : mobile media and advertising' Convergence: the journal of research into new media, vol 15 no 5 pp 427 – 445
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