Convergence culture, An Introduction.

Convergence culture is not simply "the flow of content across multiple media platforms", it cannot be summed up in the action of using a mobile to watch TV (Jenkins, 2008, p2). It is a new media network of shared ideas and knowledge, "a cultural shift as consumers are encouraged to seek out new information and make connections among dispersed  media content" (Jenkins, 2008, p3). No longer is the individual a powerless, passive consumer, but instead multitasking, sharing, exploring and interacting with other participants though multiple media, creating the media experience they desire. Without "participatory culture", creating a "buzz", media industry's would lose their power and influence over the masses, decreasing their media contents value (Jenkins,2008, p3). Identifying the significance of social networking where new media community's come together to create a "collective intelligence" (Jenkins, 2008, p4). Although empowering the participant, giving them mediums to share and create. The media industry's still build and control the mediums, using participants for the industry's own gain, such as how Facebook users generate most of the content.

Consumers are significant in "driving the process" of convergence, they are the active core mechanism which determines how to use and connect media platforms for their own media experience (Jenkins, 2008, p8). Identifying how singular platforms no longer maintain interest, no one wants a mobile that's just a mobile; they want a more connective experience. Where each mediums quality's and functions can connect and compensate for another's, such as using "games to explore ideas that couldn't fit within two-hour films"(Jenkins, 2008,p9), creating a richer media experience. This experience is delivered through "delivery systems" which are "only technologies", they become obsolete in our fast past consumer society (Jenkins, 2008, p14). What stays constant is the "media", the "cultural systems", rooted in our culture, our media desires, constantly evolving to meet society's needs (Jenkins, 2008, p14). Convergence resolves our need for on the go access to multiple media quickly and efficiently and will only grow more complex with time.

Although convergence is by no means harmonious, instead a "perpetual tangle" of different "specialized" mediums trying to intertwine and dominate one another (Jenkins, 2008, p15). With different functions, software's and intended uses "There is no single black box", but instead a mass of devices filling our homes (Jenkins, 2008, p16).

Bibliography
Jenkins, H. (2008) Convergence Culture: Where Old and New Media Collide, 2nd revised edition, NYU Press