Convergence culture

Convergence culture is when new media replaces old media because technologies keep evolving and so the media industry has to keep up on all the new technologies. These platforms of media will be constantly evolving a good example of this would be Microsoft and Sony. Sony created the Play-station in 1994 and brought gaming to a new level and as the newer consoles came out the PlayStation became obsolete so they came up with the PlayStation two then their competitor created a gaming console called the Xbox. These consoles are now in a console war that separates their fans and they continue to try and bring more to their consumers for example the new Xbox called the Xbox one is trying to be the new main “black box” with everything in one as an entertainment system for example voice commands, TV, Internet, YouTube etc while the PS4 made by Sony is trying to be the main gaming console out there and just want to make a good console. Pictures of these can be seen below [Fig .1]

Figure 1

We can look at convergence culture in another light, one where old and new media forms can co-exist. This would be a better version of the older product. If we look at the way mobile phones are now compared to what they used to be for example a phone started as a simple communication device but now it has been upgraded and adapted over the years. The way phones are now you can have the internet, touch screen, MP3 player, movie player, you can download apps that do things like make music, learn music, play games and you can even get an app that allows you to play older games from other consoles like the super Nintendo or the gameboy. The progression of the iPhone can be seen below [fig.2]

References:

Henry Jenkins (2006) Where Old and New Media Collide, Introduction "Worship at the Altar of Convergence" p.1-25

Images:

Figure 1- http://i1.ytimg.com/vi/Bhs3TIJlvsE/maxresdefault.jpg?feature=og

Figure 2- http://images.anandtech.com/doci/6330/iPhone5-3899.jpg