Convergence culture

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Convergence culture is a theory which recognizes changing relationships and experiences with new media.^[1] Henry Jenkins is accepted by media academics to be the father of the term with his book Convergence Culture: Where Old and New Media Collide.^[2] It explores the flow of content distributed across various intersections of media, industries and audiences, presenting a back and forth power struggle over the distribution and control of content.^[3]

Convergence culture is grouped under the larger term of media convergence, however, it is not mutually exclusive to the other types of convergence such as technological or regulatory aspects.^[4] The cultural shift within convergence discourse focuses on how media production and consumption has changed with the relevance of participatory culture, collective intelligence and a converging technological environment.^[1] Users can now experience an extended, interactive and even shared engagement with not just entertainment media, but also informational media.

A converging technological environment involves the changes in technology that cause different technological systems to develop and perform similar tasks.^[5] Older media such as television and radio provided the single task of broadcasting while new media can perform multiple tasks.^[6] Smartphones are an example of new media and a convergent device that can be used for not only making phone calls and sending text messages but also used for surfing the internet, watching videos, paying bills, accessing social media, and so on.^[6] Social media platforms are forms of new media that create new models of social convergence. Platforms like Google have managed to expand their services to allow a single sign-on that connects a user's workplace to their entertainment system to create a converging technological environment.^[7]

However, as the notion became popular in various media discourses, some scholars see an over-use of the idea of convergence culture, reassessing its broad nature or lack of specificity.^[8]