Introduction
The Internet has also changed the nature of information and rendered it conditionally factual. Since the Internet functions as a flat hierarchy, anyone can post whatever they choose. On the Internet it is not necessary to become an expert or acquire a license to post online; thus facts largely represent opinion. Facts also continually change online and are considered communal property, as in the example of wikis – as such, “reality” itself is under constant revision online.
Information, Entertainment and Communication
Information can be defined as facts; relative to mass media, these facts pertain to knowledge acquired about a person or a thing. Since information roots in fact, both are considered real. Entertainment typically refers to activities pursued for the sake of pleasure, enjoyment or leisure; relative to mass media, entertainment can take numerous forms, including television and film.
Forms of entertainment have historically been fictional – stories about people that do not exist. Communication represents the raw exchange of information; it is the act of sending a message and receiving a message through myriad media channels – cell phones, emails, etc.
Convergence
These various media interactions have converged in our current society. Information and entertainment for example converged to create infotainment, shows such as Entertainment Tonight, wherein the personal lives of celebrities demand the same journalistic weight as the economy, global military action or other traditionally hard news items.
Entertainment media now increasingly follows the reality show model, which employs non-celebrities and non-actors who speak their own words. Reality television is no less fictional than scripted television; reality television is heavily edited, and typically engages story editors and story producers to inflate dramatic situations. Communication convergence involves the concurrent availability of multiple forms of communication, such as a Twitter feed advertised during a television news broadcast online.
In the early days of mass media, forms such as print, radio and television maintained a separate, defined space that rarely overlapped. With the emergence of mobile devices, the Internet and the ever more participatory culture of media, these formerly discrete media channels now find themselves subsumed by the über channel that is the Internet as of 2011.
Convergence refers to the “flow of content across multiple media platforms, the cooperation between multiple media industries and the migratory behavior of media audiences who will go almost anywhere in search of the kinds of media experiences they want. Convergence is a word that manages to describe technological, industrial, cultural and social changes depending on who’s speaking and what they think they are talking about” (Jenkins 2006).
The great leveling of media that the Internet facilitates leads to the “continued fragmentation and proliferation of media touch points and content alternatives [that] makes reaching masses of audiences difficult and aggregating them even more difficult” (Jaffe 2006).
For advertisers and marketers for example, mass media “moments” – large scale events that attract enormous amounts of viewers – are now relatively few and far between: the American Idol finals, the Super Bowl and the Olympics come to mind (Jaffe 2005). Beyond that, most media audiences remain segmented and most programming attracts a smaller niche of viewers.
The main difference occurred in the viewer; the viewer is no longer the passive receiver – he is now the active, mobile participant. Jenkins (2006) refers to this phenomenon in his description of participatory culture as one that “contrasts with older notions of passive media spectatorship. Rather than talking about media producers and consumers as occupying separate roles, we might now see them as participants who interact with each other according to a new set of rules” (Jenkins 2006).
Personal and Professional Impact
Convergence has transformed mass communication and social interactions both personally and professionally through the shift to conversational media (Spurgeon 2007). Mass conversation now functions as the main mode of communication in my personal and professional life.
Participatory culture facilitates a “shift from mass media to the new media of mass conversation…Conversational media are the communication services of the global network economy and information society. They overlay rather than supersede mass and niche media, and, as the older media forms are digitized, conversational media also augment and converge with mass media to produce new, niche and one-to-one media forms” (Spurgeon 2007).
Prior to this shift, I was the media spectator locked in to time and content structures dictated by the mass media producers. Now I am the media participant; this means that my personal and professional communications are two-way, participatory and shifting in time and location. I also utilize multiple methods of transmission that may involve layered, concurrent channels such as email, online feeds and text messages.
Conclusion
The future of mass media augurs further erosion of the distinct lines between mass media channels, as well as the disappearance of separate forms. Media may continue to remain separate in rural locations that lack adequate infrastructure to support the technology – for example remote locations accessible only by radio – or in countries and regions where political interests block access to the Internet or police its usage vehemently.
However, content providers and content itself will certainly carry on moving toward maximum access for and maximum participation of consumers via mobile devices and the Internet. These technologies give the user ultimate mastery over her media choices and channels; the media serves her as the active participant, rather than as the uninvolved spectator.
References
Jaffe, J. (2005). Life after the 30-second spot: Energize your brand with a bold mix of alternatives to traditional advertising. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.
Jenkins, H. (2006). Convergence culture: Where old and new media collide. New York, NY: New York University Press.
Spurgeon, C. (2007). Advertising and new media. New York, NY: Routledge.