MEDIA CONVERGENCE

The discussion on tabloidization leads us naturally to convergence, that is convergence of content. Different genres merging into each other and creating a new genre (including something old and something new). We have already discussed about infotainment, edutainment, we have mentioned docudrama, and wondered if advertainment exist or not.

Convergence means two (or more) things joining into each other, becoming similar, merging. When applied to media, convergence happens in three major ways, according to Graham Murdock (2000). Murdock identifies the following trends of convergence in today's media:

• the convergence of cultural forms
• the convergence of communications systems, and
• the convergence of corporate ownership

The best example to explain the convergence of cultural forms is the websites in the internet, as well as media art. In internet you can witness the major forms of communication being used in one place; the sound, written text, moving images, archiving possibilities. The most important feature of the internet as a medium is of course giving the possibility to move freely through the materials on offer, which in turn allows the readers to map out their own personal routes. The reader (or the audience) is not at the mercy of following one medium at a time, in a preset sequence anymore.

Converging of communication systems is the basis, therefore the most important part of media convergence. It is the digital technology, the 1's and 0's that allow multimedia possibilities. In the future, with the development of technology, different solutions will be offered to audiences such as watching the news programme on your mobile phone or reading the editorial of the French paper Le Monde in English in a small screen at the another edge of the world. The digitalization brings many questions and problems with it. Each country has different technological standards developed by their own national technology programmes, each country has different strategies, different devices, most importantly not all can afford expensive technologies for their people. These technological developments in the first world, industrialized countries are said to be causing a digital divide in the world as the North and South, and of course East and West.

The third type of convergence is linked to the two previous ones listed here. As the technological developments make convergence of the content possible the media companies see it a very good opportunity for business to combine companies. The most famous example of the convergence of corporate ownership has happened in the beginning of the year 2000 when Time Warner and AOL merged.

In Finland as well, in late 1990s the newspaper giant Sanoma Oy and publisher WSOY have merged and became SanomaWSOY (1999) . This is the biggest media company in Finland right now with their own TV channel, cable service, publishing the main newspaper of the country, Helsingin Sanomat, also publishing books and numerous magazines.

This, following link is a detailed description of who owns what in the Finnish Media arena: Artto, Juhani/Medialinnakkeet, 2002. Material on ownership in the media industry. Finnish enterprises abroad. Foreign enterprises in Finland.
http://www.medialinnakkeet.com/kvomistus.htm

The technological convergence requires a lot of practical solutions for personalising the media. The IMU project, which is described in detail in the following article, is an attempt towards creating a media robot for people to enable them create their own news sources.

Source:

Murdock Graham, 2000. "Digital futures: the age of convergence" in Wieten, J., Murdock, G., Dahlgren, P. (eds). Television Across Europe, A Comparative Introduction. London: Sage