Hannahs Essay With References

My essay the bit in red is what I need the link for to reference :)

The media industries use different forms of public media like Facebook and YouTube to help stay relevant and “up to date” with the fast changing society. [Grant A. E. Wilkinson, 2009]This is a brilliant opportunity for creative industries as for example companies who make sitcoms can now communicate more directly with wider audiences who may not watch television by converging their media through these platforms. For example on shows such as “Only way is Essex” and “Made in Chelsea” the characters post tweets about episodes telling their sides of the story. The industry also use social networking to stay connected to the public in a less formal way weather it is reporting news or presenters talking about their day. The industries do this to almost get on a level with the public and relate to them in a more personal way than they can through a television or a radio.



“Dominant actors are repositioning to control the whole media process from content inception to delivering to individual audience segments” [Jenkins.H 2006] This quote implies opportunity to creative industries as they use convergence to broadcast their views and opinions. The more dominant the companies are, the more people they reach and therefore the more widely believed their opinions are. In a way they are controlling the way audiences think, as if people are fed the same message over various media platforms the opinion of the industry almost becomes a fact to the audience. This control over people’s way of thinking grows as the companies converge through the different platforms reaching wider audiences. “One thing about the internet is you have more access with sites. I can go to different websites and see what’s being said. I get a different view point.” [Stephen F. Ostertag 2005] This proves what audiences see through different internet platforms controls the way they think. The more power dominant media companies have means they have more media texts all over different platforms on the internet which gets viewed more frequently. The more it is seen the more widely it is believed by media audiences.



Convergence is a huge benefit to creative industries because it can reach wider audiences with the same media text presented in a different way to suit the consumer. “For the advertiser, it means researching the local customer in different, cost effective ways – communing facts in print, feelings on TV and speed in radio and net.” The advertiser now has to think not only about who will consume what text but about what platform the person will consume it on. What this quote is saying is as the convergence of media increases through advancing technology audience groups are beginning to separate through what different platforms they consume media through therefore there are more audience groups to reach. This means that because of convergence audiences are fragmenting and becoming more niche as there are more opportunities to view the text on a platform your consumer group prefers. I.e. A person doesn’t like watching the XFactor as they don’t like to see all the soppy emotions and finds it boring but still likes to know what is going on so therefore they read the articles about the show in the following day’s paper. Because of this creative industries are getting a wider variety of niche audiences viewing their media texts through cost efficient convergence via internet generating a lot more revenue.



Creative industries are now finding more efficient and cost effective ways to converge media. “News organisations are beginning to not only appreciate, but to seek out reporters who can incorporate the internet into their news style.” [Stephen F. Ostertag 2005] This is a cheaper way for industries to stay up to date with convergence instead of having several different staff working on different areas e.g. TV, print and internet they can seek out just one person to tick all the boxes. They also rely on these reporters to use social networking to keep the public up to date because again this is another very cost efficient way to advertise their company to the public and report news very quickly as they don’t need to post a full article on the networking site. The better the reporter is with incorporating internet into their news style the more likely it is that they will be able to get the best stories out a lot quicker.

Grant.A. E, Wilkinson.J.S. (2009), Understanding Media Convergence the State of Field, Oxford University Press, Chapter 4: The Converged Audience-Reciever-Senders and Contnt Creators

Jenkins.H, (2006), Convergence Culture: Where Old and New Media Collide, New York University Press.

Stephen F.Ostertag (2005), Negotiating News: A Study of the Social Construction of News Realities, University of Connecticut.