Convergence, not Divergence

Convergence Culture

Jenkins, Convergence Culture, speaks to the notion of media converging as technology advances.  Jenkins states, "history teaches us that old media never die...what dies are simply the tools we use to access the media content" (p. 13).  A problem with the media converging is the necessity for all individuals from different media types coming together and creating an outlet for all media to be dispersed from to ultimately make media converge.

Three key ideas from Convergence Culture are media convergence, participatory culture, and collective intelligence. 

These three concepts can be seen firstly when Jenkins wrote about The New Orleans Media Experience.  Jenkins stated and the message set forth from the experience was: Convergence is coming and you had better be ready, convergence is harder than it sounds, and everyone will survive if everyone works together.  In that summary of what occurred at The New Orleans Media Experience is exactly what Jenkins stated earlier about how media convergence will occur and what will happen when it does.  Secondly the concepts are seen when  McLuhan wrote about media converging in, "A process of the 'convergence of modes'  is blurring the lines between media".  The concept of media convergence is not a new one but is recently coming to life.  Lastly the Black Box Fallacy believes all media will one day come from one black box which each individual will own and is the ultimate convergence.

The most difficult concept, which may also be the scariest for me is the idea of all media converging into a so called "black box".  I am unable to wrap my head around this concept because even though this may be extremely convenient it makes it easier to be censored and may become very monotonous.

Three discussion questions:

1.) Are the younger generations enablers of media convergence?

2.) How do the industry leaders entice the population to buy into the convergence of media?

3.) Who are the early adopters and why do you believe they are the early adopters.

The Cultural Paradox of the Global Village

In Federman's piece the idea of "digitizing" oneself in order to participate in the Global Village which is the Internet.  Our digiSelf is the manifestation of our identities which "exist on the web, in chat avatars, among weblogs, web page postings and other digital media" (p. 3).  Each digiSelf is projected into an avatar and these avatars are both intriguing by the individuals which create them and the others which interact with them.

Three key points are the creation of the digiSelf, popular culture gains currency on the internet,  and we cannot escape the effects of the Internet based on McLuhan's idea of "acoustic space".

One example of these key concepts is the weblog which enables and individual who has created a digiSelf to express anything and everything which they desire.  Another example is how intriguing the Internet is and how an individual an become so enthralled by it that death can occur as did to the 24 year-old man from South Korea because he did not eat or drink for 86 hours.  Lastly, the digitization of us  decides who will define 21st century culture.

Discussion Questions:

1.) What is so intriguing about the internet that it causes people to break with the reality of nourishing oneself in order to survive?

2.) What is the fascination with creating a digiSelf?

3.) How is one's digiSelf different from their actual self?

Discussion of Readings

Both readings speak to the idea that media is converging and this convergence needs adaptation from the population in order to be effective.  In order for the internet to become as popular as it has the population has adapted by creating digiSelves so they can participate fully in all the aspects of the internet which are available.  This creation of an alternate self is a great topic which could be used for a final presentation and taking it a step further to look at how close to the person's real self the digiSelf actually depicts.