Convergence and The Relationship Between Media Producers and Consumers

Let's say you have a favorite show on television that you live and die by. You schedule your days around this show. But, much to your dismay, you have a prior, weekly commitment every time your show is on air. What are you going to do? An easy question to answer if you have access to the internet: you go online to watch the episode(s) you missed. As media outlets expand, we no longer solely rely on newspapers, the radio, or even television to gain access to the information we want and the shows we want to watch. Henry Jenkins addresses this reality he calls "convergence" in his book titled Convergence Culture. In the introduction, he defines convergence as "the flow of content across multiple media platforms" (2). Now that media is uploaded online, media companies are required to rethink what it means to consume media and, furthermore, must accept the fact that if they want to remain relevant and popular to the public, they need to adapt to these technological expansions.

Take most TV personalities. They have expanded their medium of media (I know, difficult to say). The Ellen DeGeneres Show is not solely visible on TV anymore. She acknowledged that her audience is not only in front of their TV screens at home, but they are now online. For this reason, she adopted her own twitter where she not only tweets random happenings and thoughts during the day, but also interacts with her followers. She also has her own YouTube channel where there are uploaded snippets of her shows as well as additional footage. New and old media are colliding. Media producer and media consumer are now interacting.
Ellen has even brought YouTube users and "stars" on her show, thus representing the increasing interaction between media producer and media consumer. Ellen brought two little girls from YouTube on her show who performed the song Super Bass by Nicki Minaj.





Due to the impact of media companies expanding the potential markets across difference popular platforms, Ellen is appealing to a wider audience and allowing for this interaction between media producer and media consumer. This convergence is highly important if Ellen wants to remain in business and connect with her audience. Some of these media companies or successful franchises "originate on television, on the big screen, some as books, and some as games, but each extend outward from it's originating medium to influence many other sites of cultural production" (19).

Virtual Communities and The Double Identity

Do you ever wonder how others perceive you? We all have this idea of ourselves and the type of person we are. We are categorized by many factors: the music we listen to, the movies we watch, the way we talk, and the people we hang out with. However, often times we wish to be someone else; another version of ourselves. But it's not like we get a do-over in this life when it comes to expressing ourselves. Maybe not in this life, but online, virtual communities give us that opportunity. Sherry Turkle addresses this very interesting and relevant topic in chapter eight of her book, "alone together." She says that "virtual communities were most compelling because they offered opportunities for a social life, for performing as the self you wanted to be" (158). Joining online communities where we create an avatar and engage with other avatars who are controlled by real people gives us the opportunity to become our ideal selves.

I had a friend who (for privacy concerns I will give her the fake name of Paige) joined one such online community called Maple Story. She was able to create an avatar and talk to other avatars that are also a part of this virtual reality. On Maple Story, she met a guy. I will call him Nick. Paige and Nick went on Maple Story increasingly to talk to each other and their acquaintanceship turned to friendship which turned into a relationship, an online relationship. "This can be a highly collaborative endeavor, a social life unto itself: you routinely e-mail, talk to, and message the people you game with" (158). Paige introduced my friends and I to Nick by adding us to a group online conversation. When Nick would talk to me about how much he likes Paige, he was describing someone I was not familiar with. In real life, Paige has a strong tendency to be impatient, inconsiderate, and selfish (although she has endearing qualities as well.) However, Nick described Paige as very patient, caring, and giving. Furthermore, I later found out that Paige sent Nick pictures of herself. I saw these pictures and they were clearly photo-shopped and taken from an angle that made her look significantly thinner than she was. I was in awe. Nick was in an online relationship with someone, but it was not the Paige I knew. Paige exemplifies the tendency for people to create an alter-self in virtual communities that Turkle addresses in her book. Paige relished in expressing her ideal self.

This opportunity can be positive in the sense that it gives people a second chance at being who they truly want to be as well as escaping from their reality. But people need to be careful when it comes to the virtual reality combining with reality itself, called the "life mix" in Turkle's book, because that is when one can lose sight of who they are and others may see that as well just as I did in Paige's case.

Testing

First blog post to see how this looks.