Convergence - Should Authorities Be Worried?

Jenkins and Deuze outline how in the past we saw a model where a small number of (powerful) media companies were homogenizing culture through there dominance over the means of production and distribution of media content. There was a very clear line between the publics’ role as “consumers” and the medias role as the “producer.” The idea of the public being seen as producers of… or even participants within, the surrounding culture was absurd. Yet, as demonstrated by the image below, technology has developed and media resources expanded over the past several decades and we have seen how everyone – from commercial, amateur, governmental to activists – now have the opportunity to produce and distribute content which serves there own agenda, thus putting forward there own individual mark in the cultural frame (Jenkins, 2004, Deuze, 2007).

Along with this, we see a dramatically fragmented audience. We now have the opportunity to expose ourselves to the content we choose to be exposed to. This implicates the classic media model immensely. Do the traditional mass media forms still exert the power it once had? Does it still play a large role in shaping and framing our western worldviews? There is no doubt the Internet and its blended consumer/producer model lessens the enormous power mass media platforms once possessed.

Furthermore, the proposed ISP filtering could implicate this notion more so. If Australia was to implement Internet filtering, the country will become the first Western democracy to block access to online material through legislative mandate, positioning Australia at a similar standpoint to authoritarian regimes, reminiscent of China and Iran. The lack of transparency about what and why material will be blocked, combined with the filtering’s inevitable transfer of power to those who design and implement its technology, should be concerning factors for many Australian citizens. Although there is content on the Internet that is harmful and undesirable for many citizens, the legitimacy of this censorship is somewhat debatable. Are the authorities attempting to win back the power they had prior to the introduction of the Internet? 

Deuze, M 2007, “Convergence culture in the creative industries,” International Journal of Cultural Studies, Volume 10, Issue 2, pp 243-263

Jenkins, H 2004, “The Cultural Logic of Media Convergence,” International Journal of Cultural Studies, Volume 7, Issue 1, pp 33-43