Media Convergence and the Transformed Media Environment

Convergence is the interlinking of computing and ICTs, communication networks, and media content that has occurred with the development and popularisation of the Internet, and the convergent products, services and activities that have emerged in the digital media space.

Graham Meikle and Sherman Young observe that convergence can be understood in four dimensions:

• technological—the combination of computing, communications and content around networked digital media platforms;
• industrial—the engagement of established media institutions in the digital media space, and the rise of digitally-based companies such as Google, Apple, Microsoft and others as significant media content providers;
• social—the rise of social network media such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube, and the growth of user-created content; and
• textual—the re-use and remixing of media into what has been termed a ‘transmedia’ model, where stories and media content (for example, sounds, images, written text) are dispersed across multiple media platforms

 Graham Meikle and Sherman Youngs dimensions differs with those of Jenkins (2001), where his approach was through:
a) Technological
b) Economical
c) Social
d) Cultural

While technological change is a constant feature of modern economies, the changes associated with convergence, digitisation and networking have been seen as providing the basis for a new ‘techno-economic paradigm’. This is a term developed by innovation economists to refer to 50-year cycles of changes to the technological and knowledge base of societies. A techno-economic paradigm is defined as ' A cluster of inter-related technical, organizational, and managerial innovations whose advantages are to be found not only in a new range of products and systems, but most of all in the dynamics of the relative cost structure of all possible inputs to production.'

Convergence of media platforms and services is now a feature of all established media, as well as being a core feature of new media, digital content services are now very much at the heart of their news operations, and it no longer makes sense to maintain platform-specific organizational practices.

Media convergence has increased the tendency towards media globalization. The globalization of media platforms, content and services is also a critical feature of the convergent media environment.

Convergence requires media companies to rethink old assumptions about what it means to consume media, assumptions that shape both programming and marketing decisions. If old consumers were assumed to be passive, the new consumers are active. If old consumers were predictable and stayed where you told them to stay, then new consumers are migratory, showing a declining loyalty to networks or media. If old consumers were isolated individuals, the new consumers are more socially connected. If the work of media consumers was once silent and invisible, the new consumers are now noisy and public.

Some of the fundamental changes in the media as a result of convergence include:

• content abundance and increased media competition, rather than upon distribution scarcity and monopolistic or oligopolistic media markets;
• technological changes generate new challenges for maintaining technology-neutral or network-neutral media regulations;
• media regulations can have unintended consequences in advantaging or disadvantaging some platforms, services and providers as compared to others engaged in comparable activities; and
• media markets have become more international, and national regulations may not be compatible with these international media and communications markets