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.