Eleutheromania

1. What constitutes a convergent media? How is it different from traditional media? Would you consider convergent media under the categories of new media? Explain your answer.

Anne Nicole Hipolito:

  Over the years, media evolution became a continuous process due to the development of new technologies. Prior to this, there was a clear distinction between the boundaries of each traditional media platforms such as TV, movies, books & etc with one another. With the help of technology, these boundaries became a blur and the integration of different media platforms into one digital form become the objective of this present society. This concept is called media convergence. Media convergence allows the users to experience beyond what these traditional media platforms can offer. Such example of this is the streaming sites, Netflix and Spotify, in which they provide their subscribers freedom to choose from a variety of genre of movies and music at the cost of paying subscription fee every month. This attracted many consumers who rather pay subscription fees than to pay for a cinema who only shows one movie and an album of one artist only. Another great example is how social medias evolve the way we communicate with each that in a single click, your message can reach farther and faster more than what we can imagine.  Another key difference convergent media has its users while in traditional media has its audience.The  clear destinction between these two is users has an interactive experience while using platforms while audience is just the intended receiver of the message. In addition,  each platform has different intended demographics. Say, newspapers are more catered to late adults meanwhile TV are more catered to young adults and adults. Different demographics allow traditional media to tailor their advertisements to their intended audience but that sacrifice the opportunity to have a wide audience. The users of convergent media is far more diverse than the traditional media because of its wide reach. This results in the users being bombarded by different ads that are not catered to all. However, convergent media somehow solve this by providing its users an interactive experience when it comes to advertisements which traditional media is limited to. For instance, we can now search for specific advertisements for the things we want to buy and avoid ads that do not interest them.

Lastly, anyone with access to computer and internet has access to different convergent media platforms, unlike traditional media which can only be accessed in one way. This also one of the reasons why the reach of convergent media is so much wider than traditional media

For me, convergent media is the new media today. New media evolves as human communication through time and now we are at the stage where convergent media is the prevalent platform. Because of infinite possibilities in technology advancement, there is also a high probability that a “new” new media will emerge and dethrone convergent media.

Christine Edna Soquila:

Media convergence is the interaction of two or more types of media, combining it into one platform. In the advent of the internet, more and more people became connected and although the communication is not direct, the reach of information became wider and more convenient.  With the fast-pacing technological advancements, companies and corporations saw the need to keep up otherwise their years of being in the industry will be long gone; their businesses faced-out. Now that the world almost revolves around the internet which has been gaining more users each year, it became the new platform for media. The businesses that have already “entered” this media convergence include the Inquirer Group of Companies and the Manila Bulletin Publishing Corporation, where these two companies produce broadsheet newspapers only in print before and have now offered online access to their articles. And not only does the newspaper became accessible through the internet but also games, tv shows and music.

Radio, television and newspaper are some of the forms of traditional media and one of the differences of these to the convergent media is its reach. If the younger generations are asked if they still read the newspaper or listen to the radio, almost all would say no. Although many are still watching the channels from the television, with the internet people can view more videos either with the use of computer, tablet, smartphone or even smart TV. The TV having limited channels and shows at specific time and date is one of the reasons why the internet is way ahead of this form of media. Why settle for this when you can view videos or episodes also shown on the television through the internet anytime and anywhere, with just a search away?

Since the convergence of media took place because of the accessibility of the internet and its capability for people to be connected to a great number of people, this can be considered, if not the new media, the most revolutionary having the internet as the sole channel in connecting us.

2.  How does convergent media empower individuals to assert themselves in the bigger society? Think of the metaphor of David and Goliath.

Anne Nicole Hipolito:

Audiences of convergent media platforms achieve a new type of power that traditional media platforms can’t provide. This power gives freedom and wide reach to its audience who want to establish themselves in society. Furthermore, this power gives rise of influence of huge corporations in media platforms. Over the years, these huge corporations were able to expand their power and gain control of media platforms which make it hard for small businesses and unknown individuals to thrive. It also does not help these people that most of the investors favor these huge corporations because of their stability and a large contribution to the economic activity of the country. Consequently, it resulted to a David and Goliath story where huge conglomerates homogenize the market of media platforms and bully emerging businesses and individuals. So how some of these individuals and businesses were able to overcome their battles with large corporations? Just like how David won over Goliath, these businesses and individuals were able to find their own niche to survive in this competitive society. Finding their own niche in this vast of fragmented niches resulted by convergent media is not as easy as it sounds. Despite using all types of media platforms, many small businesses were not successfully able to establish themselves in society. Convergent media, as contradicting as it may sounds, provides liberty to its users but only to some extent.

Christine Edna Soquila:

The convergent media gave much more opportunity in the marketing aspect for the smaller companies and even individuals to compete with other businesses and to make a name for their own. These smaller companies and individuals can easily advertise themselves and connect to many people. And since this media can be accessed by greater number of people comparing to the traditional means, these starting businesses can basically gain more exposure. Even though this may help those less known companies, the fact that the bigger companies and corporations also have the same or even greater opportunity cannot be disregarded.

In terms of the individuals with advocacies, these people can freely share their stand and gain supporters. This convergent media did not only bring the traditional media into one platform but also brought people together. People that share the same idea or the same advocacy can be united toward the same cause, and might even make an impact. An example for this is those individuals that started petitions to call for justice. The movements made for the environment such as reducing plastic waste or going zero waste is another example. The convergent media helped spread the word in saving the environment, giving justice and supporting other campaigns, movements and advocacies. This media made the voices of these individuals heard.

3. Compare and contrast the evolution of communication from orality to literacy and the evolution of media from traditional media to convergent media. Reflecting on how these developments came about, what could be assumed (or predicted ) for the future of media production and consumption, and mass communication?

Anne Nicole Hipolito:

For me, the need to innovate human communication is the main catalyst for the evolutions from oral to literacy and traditional media to convergent media but the two evolutions have different objectives. The motivating force why there is a shift from oral to literacy is human survival. For instance, first civilizations saw that literacy is a good way to preserve their culture and identity by communicating them through writing. Meanwhile, the shift from traditional to convergent media comes from the need for development and convenience which are due to the emergence of technology. The two objectives show how human interacted at different ages and it would seem that human interaction will also be a key for another paradigm shift. Another key difference between these evolutions is how human communication intended to play. The evolution of oral to literacy shows the interaction between the sender and receiver and also how communication is intersubjective. On the other hand, the evolution of media is limited to how it interacts with its audiences and is not intersubjective. These differences pose an implication that the evolution of media entailed a higher chance of having misunderstanding or conflicts between humans. Because the evolution of media will continue for the time being and conflicts will also continue to arise, it is our responsibility to use media wisely By looking at these two evolutionary shifts, we can learn that human interaction is a complex system that will continue to evolve and this entails the need to change on how we communicate with each other. The next paradigm shift will spark a new civilization that will change the game for the media platforms, consumers and producers, and maybe will give rise to another new form of communication. 

Christine Edna Soquila:

In the oral culture, people only communicate face-to-face to relay the information. With the inventions of new technologies, the media evolved towards what we call traditional media. With oral communication, you cannot be sure whether the news is true or the source of the information is credible since people might not tell the news exactly as given to them which may lead to different interpretations, hence wrong information, contrary to the news printed in the newspaper, heard in the radio or shown on the television which are known to give credible and accurate information. Communication also became easier when the media further evolved. The spread of information was slow during the oral cultures since it goes from one person and relayed to another, which takes quite a lot of time to reach all people of the community. The traditional media became accessible to people and those using this media is reached by the information faster. The convergent media on the other hand is now used by the majority of people and now, less people make use of the traditional media, due to this, the information became even faster to reach the people and the dissemination became faster as well. The drawback of this fast spreading of news is that there is less time to determine whether the source is credible or not; people share the news even without knowing if that is the truth or not.

Unfortunately, looking at the evolution of media, the old generation of media is more likely to be phased-out in the future. The capability to connect with other people might be even faster than what we have currently but it may also make us much more disconnected from the real world.