To that one controls every aspect of what hey hear or see is a bold statement. In this new age of media what exactly are the tools which allow such freedom. Online streaming? Email? Granted a lot of people no longer have pay tv as most of what they want is now available online. But as Henry Jenkins says, convergence does not mean the new replacing the old, it simply means the new and old meeting and finding a way to co-exist. We already see signs of that.
The once free videos now have unskippable ads at the start of them, which if you are really fussed about can download things such as adskip and adblock to stop it, but that doesn't mean you have escaped. I do not think I have been to a website in the past few years that hasn't had some kind of banner ad. It seems that convergence simply means the same old stuff just on a different platform.
Looking at it from a philosophical point of view, you can even say the new media has taken away our ability to watch what we want. There are several studies, on-going and concluded which state that people who watch a screen (TV, Computer, phone etc...) for excess of 2 hours per day have a lower attention span than those who don't (Grohol 2010). With a lessened attention span it makes it quite difficult to focus on things, even though you want to watch them. For example, although The Godfather is a great movie, it is hard to sit through the whole thing for me. TV shows that go for an hour have a hard time keeping my attention, even ones that I record and want to watch.
So what is the real effect of convergence?
Deuse, M. 2007, 'Convergence culture in the creative industries', internationsal journal of cultural studies, vol.10, no.2, pp.243-263.
Grohol, J. 2010, 'Video Games and TV Linked to Decreased Attention Span', PsychCentral, July 5, weblog, accessed 30/8/2011, http://www.suite101.com/content/attention-spans-decreasing-with-too-much-technology-a258607
Jenkins, H. 2006, 'Introduction: "Worship at the Alter of Convergene"', in Convergence Culture: where old and new media collide, New York University Press, New York, pp.1-24.
Pytel, B. 2010, 'Attention Span Decreasing With Too Much Technology', Educational Issues, July 7, accessed 30/8/2011, http://www.suite101.com/content/attention-spans-decreasing-with-too-much-technology-a258607
I think that your definition of convergence as being "the same old stuff on different platforms" is right, but it seems to be the most basic and brief definition possible. It's a lot more than this because there are many negative effects that are coming from convergence like the loss of hardback books and hard copy music.
ReplyDeletepeople can argue that the sound quality that comes from records is specific to that medium and this quality is lost when its converted to mp3. I know that this is a weak example because I actually love convergence but its just a way of challenging your definition
I too cannot remember the last time I went to a site that didn’t have some form of advertising and fair enough. Rarely do I purchase a physical newspaper, which once was a primary platform for advertising when I can quickly go on the net and find out all the latest headlines almost instantaneously. I believe that convergence is inevitable and we will only be exposed and aware of more in the future.
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