Film Industry’s contribution as Convergence Culture

According to Jenkins (2016), convergence culture refers to people use all kinds of media in relation to one another when entering the era today where media will be used by people everywhere. It can be also defined as where the new media and traditional media combine, where grassroots and corporate media collide, where the power of the media producer and the power of the consumer interact in unpredictable ways. The revolutionary changes to the mass media as a result of convergence have resulted in the transformation of traditional methods of contribution in film industry to the audiences (Carrithers, 2016).

One of the types of convergence culture is technological convergence. Technological convergence is important in the film industry. Technological convergence is digitisation of all media content. The words, images and sound are transformed into digital form and enable them to flow across platforms (TKellett, 2010). It has led to the emergence of multimedia technologies and development of new ways of providing information. Visual content today is not only focused only on traditional media, but also shifts to new media like computer, laptops and smartphones. Most of the movies can be viewed on any device connected to the internet. They can watch the film they are interested in for a lower price or completely free on the sites like YouTube and Netflix. One of the films that serves as an example is Harry Potter. Originally, Harry Potter began as a novel series. The novel in printed form has been converted into a movie which is digital media and became appealing to a wider range of people.

Besides that, economic convergence is the horizontal and vertical integration of the entertainment industry, in which a single company has interests across and within many kinds of media. This is also the linking of companies to media (Bcn1002, 2010). For example, the company who produces Harry Potter is Warner Bros. It represents economic convergence because they have many subsidiary companies, including DC Comics, New Line Cinema, The CW Television Network and Warner Bros Interactive Entertainment. They are able to utilize them to promote up and coming movies.

In conclusion, media theorist Henry Jenkins has devoted a lot of time to think about convergence and breaks convergence down into five types. The development of film industry is in countless relationships with other media. It changes the film industry, moreover affects the users and their behaviour.

References

Bcn1002, 2010. What is convergence culture. [Online] Available at: https://www.slideshare.net/BCN1002/what-is-convergence-culture-5749078 [Accessed 13 December 2018].

Carrithers, M., 2016. The Revolutionary Changes to the Film Industry as a Result of Convergence and Digitalization. Bachelor Thesis, pp. 18-19.

Jenkins, H., 2006. Convergence Culture: Where Old and New Media Collide. s.l.:NYU Press.

TKellett, 2010. What Is Convergence culture?. [Online] Available at: https://www.slideshare.net/TKellett/what-is-convergence-culture-5746895 [Accessed 11 December 2018].