Week 5 - “Convergence Culture”

Over a short period of time, the way we consume media has rapidly changed and developed to revolve around the way we live of lives. The change in consumption has enabled a larger ranged age audience to become interactive and use the media easily and more efficiently. This coming together of all different media mediums is what I believe is the meaning of “Convergence Culture”. The traditional consumption of media has mostly declined and producers are finding it difficult to create new forms of media to keep up with the changing times.

Facebook has become a very popular website, created in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg. The website allows users to communicate and share pictures all over the world. The site has become so popular, with 600 million active users. Its popularity has encouraged new ways of using Facebook, such as Smartphone apps. The apps have allowed audiences to download the feature and use it effortlessly wherever they are. Facebook has become a source for obtaining the news and weather which shows the obvious declines in traditional consumption. Facebook has also been seen with negative impacts such as becoming addictive, less active and anti-social. Facebook is also a new way of keeping in communication with people, resulting in old communication methods becoming extinct. Facebook has included many traditional forms of media to be found in one website. This is an example of “Convergence Culture”.

The use of Newspapers is declining due to the new forms of media. People have now created blogs where they upload their own news for people to read, which reduces the need for newspapers. Also, Newspaper companies have now produced websites for people to read off the internet which allows audiences to receive the internet a lot easier. The Guardian newspaper has recently released an app where people can pay £4.99 a month to receive the newspaper on their Smartphones. The benefits the consumer gets is they have no need to buy a Newspaper from the shop which takes time and money, receiving their news on their phones is a more efficient and reliable way. On the other hand, producers are finding it difficult to cope with the Newspaper decline where they’re losing out on profit and having to cut jobs because they’re no need for extra journalists. Smartphones consist of music players, internet, news apps, games, social networking, television etc. They can be seen as a new form of media where all mediums can be found.

This generation has become more online active and revolve mainly around the computer and our smartphones. This has become apparent as television views have reduced due to the creation of things like BBCi player and 4OD. This online television viewing allows audiences to watch programmes they enjoy or have missed on the television. They can be viewed whenever and however many times. This has allowed audiences to create their own schedule which best suits them. This is also the same for Sky+ where audiences feel more in power and makes them happy. “Convergence Culture” has allowed an audience to obtain things easily as everything can be found in one place - The internet and our smartphones.