Media Convergence is Part of Daily Life

Media convergence was out of the ordinary but now its something that is part of our daily lives. Henry Jenkins, author of Convergence Culture says "in the world of media convergence, every important story gets told, every brand gets sold, and every consumer gets courted across multiple media platforms" (Jenkins 3). So how does media convergence work?

Jenkins says that media convergence has a relationship with two other concepts: participatory culture and collective intelligence. Participatory culture means that consumers are seen as active participants interacting with each other instead of being passive spectators. Pierre Levy came up with the term collective intelligence, meaning that everyone knows different pieces of information and that collectively people know a lot. Media convergence depends on consumer participation. Jenkins says that it occurs within consumer's brains and through their social interactions (Jenkins 3).

Technology has made it easier for this convergence to occur. Let's take a look at the example of social networking over the internet. Over the last few years, social networking has grown in popularity and many of use social networking sites on a daily basis. At this point, Facebook is the most popular social networking site and has almost one billion members around the world. People post both personal and other information that they know. Friends and strangers find out about this information and share it with other people. Some of it goes viral. In the age of social networking, it has become a lot easier for people's thoughts and ideas to reach a wider audience. Social networking involves both participatory culture and collective intelligence. As the use of social media has become more common, so has media convergence.

Widespread use of the internet has done a lot for media convergence and has begun to absorb other types of media. For example, for many decades newspaper companies were strictly on paper. Now we can read many of the same articles in online versions of the newspaper. You can watch television shows on the internet. For some people it is no longer necessary to own a television. You can download and listen to music from the internet. You can have a chat with grandma over the internet. A computer, cell phone, or gaming console can be used to participate in these activities.These are devices that people use frequently.

With all of these types of new media, it becomes easier for brands like Star Wars and The Matrix to be spread across multiple platforms. These brands use different elements of both participatory culture and collective intelligence and that knowledge can be shared with friends. There are also many other examples of different brands that have found more success because media convergence is thriving. Media convergence has made it possible for those brands to grow and also for us to be entertained in new ways that involve our participation.

Other types of Media Convergence

Media convergence is not something that is new. It is something that has been happening for a while but not to the extent that it happens now. Back in the early days of film technology, many films were made that were based on books. Films about Sherlock Holmes and Alice In Wonderland are early examples.

Games are also being spread out across multiple media systems. Pokemon went from being a popular card game to a video game. They also put it on television and made children's books using the characters from the game.

Resident Evil began as a survival horror game and has now become a major video game and film franchise. There are now six Resident Evil video games available to play which have branched out to include action games. The Resident Evil film series starring Milla Jovovich has also done well. There have been five films made so far and another has been confirmed. There is also the possibility of a seventh film. One of the producers of the films has said there have been talks about rebooting the franchise.

Music is also something that has spread out across multiple media systems. Musical Artists have not only had musical recordings for sale but they have also been able to make music videos and concert DVDs.  Games like the popular video game franchise Guitar Hero has let musical artists work spread into the video game arena.

Convergence culture is something that has been happening for a while, but it is becoming more common with the increase in new types of technology. Media companies recognize the money that can be made from taking a popular brand and turning it into a new product using another type of media.

Convergence does not only involves the media. Henry Jenkins, author of the book Convergence Culture, explains in this book that media convergence happens when individuals take media into their own hands. The internet has done a lot to make media convergence more common. Jenkins also points out that people lives also flow across multiple media channels (Jenkins 17).  There is a demand from the consumer for more content across multiple media platforms. Media convergence and convergence culture is something that becomes more normal everyday.

Convergence Culture and The Walking Dead

One of my favorite television shows right now is The Walking Dead on AMC. The show is adapted from the comic book of the same name made by creator Robert Kirkman. The comic book was first issued in 2003 and the television show followed in 2010. The TV show is based on the comic book's timeline but it is not exactly the same which keeps it more interesting for those of us who have read the comic books.

The television show and the comics have done very well. The show has been nominated for many awards and has had good ratings throughout it's three seasons on AMC. It is also the most-watched basic cable drama in the history of broadcasting.

After The Walking Dead brand branched out into television, it began to branch out into the video game market. This year, Telltale games began to release an episodic video game for The Walking Dead. In the game, the main characters are different but they live in the same zombie-infested world. The first season of video games will have five episodes to play through, with each one being released a few weeks after the other. The last episode of the first season will be out next month.
 
The video games were met with positive reviews. The first episode of The Walking Dead game sold one million copies in 20 days, making it Telltale's fastest selling game to date. This summer, Telltale revealed that a new season of The Walking Dead games will be released. 

There is another Walking Dead game that is going to be published by Activision. The game, The Walking Dead: Survival Instinct, will be a prequel to the television series and will be released next year. So far, The Walking Dead brand has had great success in everything it has decided to go into.  

In other news related to last week's blog, Disney has announced that it has bought Lucasfilm for $4 Billion. They will be making Star Wars: Episode 7 and will be releasing a new episode every two to three years after that. Here is a link to that story.

http://money.msn.com/business-news/article.aspx?feed=AP&Date=20121030&ID=15733883&industry=IND_MEDIA&isub=&ocid=ansmony11

Star Wars & Media Convergence

In class we talked about The Matrix film franchise and how it is a good example of convergence culture in the media, which is defined by author Henry Jenkins as the "flow of content spread across many media platforms." After the success of the first Matrix film, two sequels were released, a comic book was launched, video games were made, and animated short films were produced. The success of the first Matrix film made it possible to expand The Matrix universe because of the popularity of the product.

Another film franchise that comes to mind when I think of convergence culture in our media is George Lucas' Star Wars. Released in 1977, this was released twenty-two years before The Matrix came out onto the scene. Out of Star Wars success came five more feature length films, comic books, books, animated TV series The Clone Wars, video games, computer games, and toys. These all comprise what is known as the Star Wars universe.

These different mediums of entertainment expand upon what was shown in the Star Wars films. They continue where the films left off and show the events that occurred before the films began. They expand the story over thousands of years.

The Star Wars franchise is valued at around $30 Billion. We can see that media convergence is good for making money. I think that Star Wars is one of the better examples of convergence in the media today.