Henry Jenkins is introducing to us the convergence, or mixing, of mediums to create new ways for the media audience to interact with different platforms. Although this seems strange to consider a generation of technology where multiple mediums aren't adapted by technology, we have to consider Jenkins' time of writing. In 2008, the first iPhone was only just released. Steve Jobs presented the iPhone as a "revolutionary mobile phone". He talks about three new products, a widescreen iPod with touch controls, a revolutionary mobile phone and a breakthrough internet communications device. However, he soon reveals that these are all in the one product.
(BorisLeeHK, 2012)
The breakthrough of the iPhone is exactly what Jenkins is talking about when he talks about convergence. Jenkins says "Each old medium was forced to coexist with the emerging media (..) printed words did not kill spoken words. Cinema did not kill theatre. Television did not kill radio." (Jenkins, 2008, p14)
Jenkins talks about his living room, "I am seeing more and more black boxes" (Jenkins, 2008 p15) How long is it before we have one device which literally does everything? Considering the technological advances of the past 5 years, we aren't to far away. Mobile phones are a cinema, doctors, supermarket, photo albums, (practically) DSLRs, banks, take aways, bibles, loyalty cards, compasses, book stores and anything we want them to be. What else needs to be converged with our pocket device to make life easier?
The "Black Box Fallacy" (Jenkins, 2008, p13) is when he talks about the technologies which are used to deliver the media, change and update, so for example, the iPhone, 3G, 3GS, 4, 4s, 5, 5s, 5c. These were all updated with new technologies, for example, voice recognition, mobile internet, finger print recognition, etc. "Media, on the other hand, evolve" (Jenkins 2008, p13)
Jenkins doesn't give much away about his opinion on how convergence is affecting our culture in the introduction but he talks technologies which we are using and seeing being developed today. I think that the Cheskin Research which he mentions would have a different view on todays technology, eleven years after their initial research.
"The old idea of convergence was that all devices would converge into one central device that did everything for you (a la universal remote). What we are now seeing is the hardware diverging while the content converges."( Cheskin Research, 2002, p8,9)
Bibliography
Jenkins, H., 2008. Convergence Culture: Where Old and New Media Collide Revised., NYU Press.
Cheskin., 2002. Designing Digital Experiences For Youth
BorisLeeHK. (2012) Steve Jobs - 2007 iPhone Presentation (Part 1 of 2). [Online Video]. 22 April. Available from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Etyt4osHgX0. [Accessed: 8 October 2013].
BorisLeeHK. (2012) Steve Jobs - 2007 iPhone Presentation (Part 1 of 2). [Online Video]. 22 April. Available from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Etyt4osHgX0. [Accessed: 8 October 2013].
1 comment:
Thanks for a thoughtful response. I am often asked these days what I would change about this. I do think we are much closer to seeing the kind of technological convergence model I challenged in this piece. I do own the new Apple i-products and they do integrate many of the media functions into one device -- for better and for worse. Yet, we did not get there purely through technological changes. The industry had to learn which functions the public wanted to perform through mobile devices, which were better served in other ways. They had to develop interfaces which allowed people to do those functions in ways that made sense to them and conversely, they had to educate the public about the conventions through which these products work. I would still argue, though, that despite the integration of these functions through a single device, the most important changes have been cultural and not technological -- in terms of how we think about media content, in how we are embracing new roles as curators and circulators of content (the theme of my new Spreadable Media book), and in terms of how industry relations shape what kinds of function and content can flow freely through these devices.
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