What does old media mean by "convergence" and has it happened yet?
According to Jenkins, convergence is "technological, industrial, cultural, and social changes in the ways media circulates within our culture." I think it has definitely happened.
I stopped getting the newspaper because I get the headlines pushed to my Twitter account, also, I can find out more on the internet.
I cannot tell you the last time I hand wrote an entire letter.
In high school, I knew everyone of my friend's phone numbers by heart- now I couldn't tell you one. In fact, I often struggle with my own- although, I can still recite my home phone number from high school.
I used to wonder what happened to my old friends from elementary school, high school and college- now I just look them up on Facebook.
These are just singular examples about myself, but it is these sort of changes that lead to convergence.
I found the example of "Evil Bert" particularly effective to illustrate convergence partly because I remember that phenomenon. I remember seeing the website and I also remember the malay that followed.
Convergence is a double-edged sword, so to speak. It is a remarkable thing to be privy to so much information, however, it is the misuse of this information (or the avenues it travels through) that calls it into question.
It reminds me of a story that was told to me by a local principal. A teacher in his school reprimanded a student- in front of the class. Apparently she got upset and embarrassed so, she went into the hall and called her mom and told her he touched her breast. Instead of calling the principal or coming to the school, the parent called the local media who swarmed the school. The faculty and staff had no idea about the incident. The police arrived even before it was sorted out. The teacher had to endure the humiliation (he was married and his daughter attended the school) and was suspended pending an investigation. You can read more about it here. This is a case where traditional methods of communication would have been a much preferred route for this information to travel.
My opinion is that convergence is a powerful tool that when used effectively can be a wonderful thing, but in the wrong hands or when abused, it is very dangerous.
I am truly excited to learn everything I can about this influential phenomenon.
Jenkins, H. (2006). Convergence Culture: Where old and new media collide. New York:
New York University Press
That's the breast story I've heard in a while Joann. Sorry... In all seriousness, the aforementioned debacle doesn't quite illustrate Pierre Levy's optimistic perspective about convergence as explained in our reading. However, it does serve to remind us that the easier it is to access information, the more we must scrutinize it's sources and use it responsibly. Perhaps the most interesting notion in that chapter for me was the social classes that exist in a "knowledge community." Within the power of a collective intelligence, there exists those members who feel like they have a more superior intelligence than the others. This was illustrated in the example of ChillOne and the "survivor sucks" spoilers. Here was a guy that was privy to restricted information and the "elite" members of the group were skeptical because he knew more than they did. Talk about a conflicting collaboration! That would be like Georgia O'Keeffe submitting info on Wikipedia about Alfred Steiglitz and being called a liar by the webmaster because she knew too many intimate details. This also shows that while a collective intelligence can exert power over media producers it can also diminish its credibility with dissent.
ReplyDeleteIn the middle school i taught at before Full Sail we were warned by the principal of something called teacher baiting where a group of students would try to provoke the teacher while someone would record the whole thing on their cellphone. When I first started teaching, long before students arrived with video recording cellphones, it's always been my policy to work as if there was another adult in the room and not say anything to my students that I wouldn't say if there was someone else there. It is much better when we work with our students than versus them.
ReplyDelete