Mapping the Media Essay

Explore Media Convergence and its relevance to the future of Film, Television and Radio
Mapping The Media

*** The Black Box ***

Convergence, the combination of two or more elements of subject, is apparent throughout the media. It has over time gone through technological revolutions, television and the transmission of images, and more recently the internet.
“The media industries are undergoing another paradigm shift. It happens from time to time. In the 1990s, rhetoric about a coming digital revolution contained an implicit and often explicit assumption that new media was going to push aside old media, that the internet was going to displace broadcasting, and that all of this would enable consumers to more easily access media content that was personally meaningful to them” (H. Jenkins Page 5)
The internet, has been the key stone in most convergence in recent years, however it has not created a new type of media, but changed the old. With more access and the ease of ability media has grown for its consumers and it has been tough for the suppliers to cope and keep up with the times without going under.
It has affected aspects of Film, Television and Radio and the following are a select few that are sure to change the future of them.

Film

Storytelling has become more complicated with the introduction of realisation that film doesn’t have the limit of stay within the film industry. A new phenomena which has yet to be labelled successful for it products is Transmedia Storytelling. It is only to recent extent that it has become an issue as we have always had films using other industries like, television, radio and merchandizing.

“A transmedia story unfolds across multiple media platforms, with each new text making a distinctive and valuable contribution to the whole. In the ideal form of transmedia storytelling, each medium does what it does best-so that a story might be introduced in a film, expanded through television, novels and comics; its world might be explored through game play or experienced as an amusement park attraction. Each franchise entry needs to be self contained so you don’t need to have seen the film to enjoy the game, and vice versa. Any given product is a point of entry into the franchise as a whole. Reading across the media sustains a depth of experience that motivates more consumption.” (H. Jenkins Page 95)

Harry Potter is a film that is currently in the large process of transmedia storytelling, it has books, films, games, computer games, and soon a theme park. However the first film to break such controversial barriers was The Matrix. “The Matrix is entertainment for the age of media convergence, integrating multiple texts to create a narrative so large that it cannot be contained within a single medium” Not only was the Matrix a film but for consumers to get a full view on what the ‘lore’ of the matrix is, they must, but are not required to understand the basics, watch the trilogy, the animation films, and read the graphic novels etc.

Transmedia Storytelling requires the convergence of several mediums, but also the support of its industry to take such a risk. It was feared that creating such a vast story would lessen the audience, and even confuse them, which the Matrix did for a number of people.
Filming has undergone a controversial change with films like the matrix. “Traditional photographic film is still employed for most of the world’s theatrical motion pictures, but digital video (DV) is becoming important in all phases of production, distribution, and exhibition. People making a film on DV follow the stages of movie production, and most general issues of artistic choice are comparable across the two media. An artists working in either medium must make all the decisions about large-scale form and technique.”

With production much easier with DV the industry and its workers feared that they would soon be cutting back on jobs. Fewer artists would be needed for faster productions, and with film being digital the element of CGI, (Computer Generated Images) which is cheaper would make the cut backs even more so.

The way we acquired film is under fear because of the internet, with piracy having increased due to file sharing and the ease of ripping films onto computers, the industry has been forced to adapt. A new strategy is the convergence of mobile phones with the film industry.
“In December 2004 a hotly anticipated Bollywood film, Rok Sako to Rok Lo (2004), was screened in its entirety to movie buffs in Delhi, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Mumbai, and other parts of India through EDGE-enabled mobile phones with live video streaming facility. This is believed to be the first time that a feature film had been fully accessible via mobile phones.” (H. Jenkins. Page 4)

There are downsides to this plan. The consumer’s experience of films has been traded for mobility, and the safety from piracy. This new technology isn’t sure to work, as the industry is not sure whether people will conform to this new way of watching films, or use this as a way to preview before watching them in cinemas or at home.

In this country, buying films instead of going to cinemas hasn’t quite become a norm, but mobile phones have been a large convergence factor for the film industry, with the ability to watch trailers. Also mobile phones have played an important role in the Television and Radio industries too. It is unclear whether we have seen only a portion of what we will soon be doing with mobile phones, or that they have reached their limits due to its size.

Television

One of the most well know changes to television is that of news broadcasting and what is called User Generated Content (UGC) which is ‘citizen newsgathering,’ people who witness a significant event first and have images can be included in the news when they supply them to news outlets. It is viewed that people being included is better than being un-engaged with the news. However it has great disadvantage, as it can be dangerous for the ‘citizen journalist,’ and set back news broadcasts as people will focus on the large amount of visual stimulus rather than its various impacts.

‘We Media’ is a new term for UGC and citizen broadcasting of news. Things like blogs and podcasts are starting to substitute ‘Public Service News Broadcasting.’
“There were nearly 150 million bloggers in 2006 and the number has grown since then. The blog is a completely portable application. The location of the author becomes irrelevant in this process which has allowed people to maintain blogs from anywhere in the world. Yet the updated information becomes immediately available” ( P. Crogan. Page 470)
News broadcasting has done well to adapt since the new phenomena of public newsgathering, the traditional has done well to converge.

The number of channels that audience have access to has been growing rapidly since the boom of satellite and cable television. Today there are over one thousand channels on Sky. With so much choice viewer now have greater Interactive television (IT) capabilities. VCR, teletext, pay per view and the British ceefax have gone digital. They are old IT capabilities that have been adapted so that your television can remember what it is you watch, and use this information to decide on things you may like and even show you advertisements that are more likely to get your attention.

With so much choice on TV and the use of VCR recording devices seem to be more of a bother, there is a new wave in this country on digital television providers or independent companies offering the new combined set top box and TV recording device. People are no longer restricted to watching one programme or at a set time. And today the television is used greatly for interacting with other devices in the home, like game consoles. With Video on Demand (VOD) technology domestic problems have been resolved, making it easier for programming to be views more often and frequently to all members of a household.

Radio

Since the internet, radio stations have been opened to the public. Internet radio stations can be created by anyone with ease, even though you listen to them in a different way, internet radio is becoming just as popular as traditional due to the easy access of the internet today. And now all FM/AM stations transmit over the internet as well.

“In North America and Europe, many, if not most radio stations, stream their programming over the Internet. Radio-Locator, a website that lists radio stations on the Internet and links to 2,500 audio radio stations in 133 countries all over the world. Many stations merely extend their reach, using the Internet to make their programs available to geographically distant listeners, but some are using the interactive capabilities to produce value added services to their listeners. More recently, independent producers and radio stations have discovered podcasting, which enables people to download programs to their MP3 players.” http://www.ictregulationtoolkit.org/
With user generated radio stations and FM/AM station now on the internet the future of radio maybe that it will soon disappear. The quality of internet radio can be better than radio waves, interactivity with audience can be simpler, and the cost to audience and the radio stations is cheaper.
Conclusion
“The digitalization of information has changed the media: print, audio and video are all being forced to adapt.” (P. Verweij. Page 75)
Media converging is not a bad thing in my opinion and it should not be met with resistance. Media conglomerates should but more effort into adapting to new technology rather than trying to keep traditions alive.
“Convergence is not a static situation but a dynamic process, a development in certain stages.” (P. Verweij. Page 77)

The future of, film looks set to thrive from current advances in technology, and the results because of them are likely to open up new entertainment forms like Transmedia Storytelling. Whereas Television is fighting to stay in the game as it competes with the public becoming a part more prominent role in the industry and new technology like the internet looking more like a better substitute every day. Radio’s future looks grim. However old mediums like radio are an adequate way for audience to receive news. It is unclear whether radio will be around for much longer, or if it will change.

I think that these industries convergence with certain technologies are having a negative impact on certain social aspects. Mobile phones adapting to supply film, television and radio, keep people apart and with their mobile phones. These industries used to be classes as group or family activities. With certain types of convergence, like films on mobile phones, people are conforming to an insular life style that has less and less social activity. VOD is very convenient, but the ratio of what people do in a day is changing to people watching more television due to the fact that people can watch more and more TV. Community radio is suffering due to internet streaming. Internet station, have no base of target audience, because anyone in the world can listen. The social aspect in community radio isn’t in internet streaming. It is driving people away from the local community, making people less informed on local news.

Bibliography
H. Jenkins. Convergence Culture. New York University Press. New York. 2006
P. Crogan. Convergence Journal. Vol. 14. Number 4 2008
http://www.ictregulationtoolkit.org/en/PracticeNote.aspx?id=2405
P. Verweij. Convergence Journal. Vol 15. Number 1 2009
Reference
D. Gillmor. We the Media. O’Reilly. USA 2004