GYoung Digital Blog

Digital Convergence and the evolution of digital media

What is digital convergence?

Digital convergence is a phrase that described the evolution of digital media and how it’s become what it is today. According to the academic textbook, Media & Culture: Mass Communication in a Digital Age, there is an explicit definition: “The technological merging of content in different mass media” 

Basically, that’s referring to how people consume media these days, and how many of the devices we use have become different appendages for a singular media distribution platform. 

In the old days, many devices were very distinct, and people went to their respective device to consume their respective piece of content. Someone might pick up a newspaper and read a a print article about the news of the day. Someone else might sit in front of the television and watch a comedy show about six friends in New York City and their WACKY adventures every day. Someone else might listen to a radio to listen to people talk. 

At that time, if someone said they’re going to watch a TV show on a newspaper, their friend’s might think that they’re crazy, and probably not hang out with them very much. Likewise, you don’t turn to radio to read a newspaper.

However, in today’s age, everything has been brought together, seamlessly. Today, we carry smartphones around with is that allow us to do all those things simultaneously, while sitting on the bus. At the same time, nearly every device we have in our homes have become equiped to connect with the internet, from video game consoles, to our TVs, and even our 

In short, digital convergence is basically the marriage of multiple types of media. Our TVs also function as toasters.

So, who cares? What good does this all do? Or does it?

Challenges of Digital Convergence

Some of the interesting things about today’s digital media world is the ease of consuming media, thanks to smartphones and tablets, but at the same time, it’s the easy in which to create media. With the ease of consuming media, and at such a rapid pace, it’s also become very easy to create that media, and push out information. At the same time, it’s easy for freelance content creators to create something new, and sometimes they might get more attention than traditional media companies.

YouTube is a good example of that. As discussed earlier, there was a time when TV was the go-to device to get your TV shows, sitcoms, dramas, movies, and etcetera. YouTube comes around, and it’s allowed for anyone to create videos, and movies, of their own, and depending on the subject, or quality of the video, it’s very possible for some of those videos to gain a bigger audience than some of the bigger, more traditional TV networks, from NBC, or PBS, or Fox, or even cable news. Nowadays we see those traditional news networks getting integrated in YouTube, and fortunately for them, they have enough money to entice the decision makers at YouTube.

I’m looking forward to see how media converges in the future.