Digital Convergence

This week I took a deep dive at understanding digital convergence- a new way to interpret changes in the media landscape. The way media is evolving has a lot to do with the needs and wants of society. The new digital improvements are designed to solve users’ problems and provide the ability to enhance our lives. Now, because of digital convergence, new media is able to interconnect different platforms for easier engagement.

This is changing the game for what users expect of media, and the way business professionals can work with media. Because of convergence, any form of media can now include more than just text. It can really be brought to life and include multimedia elements to gain a deeper understanding of what is to come. Remember when you would receive a fax of a creative board? Now, you could get a mock up that would really be brought to life, with visuals or even videos. Alternatively, from a user’s standpoint, digital convergence now allows for users to be the creators, not just the content viewers. Convergence gives users a worldwide voice, anytime, anywhere.

This new voice that users now have allows for more than just professionals to get their stories out. Think about all of the platforms there are to share stories with the world: Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Instagram, etc. Anyone can post and tell a story, and drive engagement across the world- at a rapid pace. In contrast, before these new methods of communicating, the only people in the media realm were professionals- those paid to tell someone else’s story.

As the world is evolving, the digital world is evolving too- to meet the needs of users. If there is more content created by more people, yes this is helping give everyone a voice, but is it creating conflict in understanding where the truth is? Are you able to trust what is out there? How can you know who and what to believe? With a critical eye and a critical ear, users need to be more analytical then ever.

Convergence is bringing people together by providing more opinions, more access, and more ideas worldwide. It is up to us as viewers to understand more than one side, and to form our own opinions based on the trusted information out there.

It’s 2020 now- what do you think is next in the way the media landscape will change?