Media Conversions and

its effect on consumer

and potential content
Subject: Media Management

Sachin Bade
 Convergence
• Media economics and management scholars and
communication professionals have become increasingly
interested in convergence over the past 15 years.
• There are many driving forces behind convergence and
the increased interest in the concept
 Driving forces of Conversion

technologic
al repurposin
innovation, changing technologic
al g of old
including deregulatio consumer media
the rise of n/liberalizat tastes and standardiza The fear of
tion; content for being left
the ion and increased distribution
Internet globalizatio consumer the search behind and
and the n. affluence for via various big
digital forms of
synergy new media
revolution.
 The brief history of conversion
• Sometime in the 1920s, Father Pierre Teilhard de Chardin,
a Jesuit priest, came up with the concept of convergence.

“With the evolution of man . . . a new law of Nature has come into force—that of
convergence.” Biological evolution had created step one, “expansive
convergence.” Now, in the 20th century, by means of technology, God was
creating “compressive convergence.” Thanks to technology . . . Homo sapiens
[are] being united . . . by a single “stupendous thinking machine”. . . that would
cover the earth like “a thinking skin,” a “noo-sphere.” (Wolfe, 2001, pp. 206–207,
quoting Father Pierre Teilhard de Chardin)
Global village
• In 1964, McLuhan (1964) renamed
• Teilhard’s “noo-sphere” the “ globalvillage,
• "which has become a foundation for discussions and
inquiries focused on global connectivity via various
media and telecommunication distribution systems.
Defining Convergence
Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary defines the general concept
of convergence as “the act of converging and moving
toward union or uniformity”

Definitions of media
convergence focus on
 technological convergence,
 functional convergence
competitive/complementary
convergence,
 strategic/industry structure
convergence.
 Effect on consumer
Convergence has resulted in increased “choice and
control” for consumers by “creating faster, easier,
and more flexible means for consumers to do what
they are already doing” (Picard, 2000, pp. 60–61).”

Internet usage is not reducing the amount of time spent

watching TV, and that changes in consumer
behaviour as a result of convergence will be
evolutionary rather than revolutionary (Stipp’s
(1999)

Consumers spend a fixed amount of time and

money on media) by conducting a survey of users
of both the weekly print edition and daily e-mail
news updates of a furniture industry trade
publication.
 Effect on potential content
convergence is transforming the multimedia industry from “three
vertical businesses (telephone, television, and computer) to five
horizontal segments”—content, packaging, transmission network,
manipulation infrastructure, and terminals.

Dowling et al. (1998) indicate that convergence-based consumer

need/demand issues will be even more important in the future as
television moves.

“ Journalists see a modified future role in which their “function

changes from someone who chooses what information to make
available to someone who . . . seeks to provide information whose
quality distinguishes it from the rest and . . . makes sense of the
information that is out there” (Singer (1997)
Thank you...