The document discusses the trends of digitization and convergence in media platforms. It explains how analogue signals are being replaced by digital formats which allow for more efficient use of bandwidth and cheaper distribution. However, consumers only see benefits when large media companies lose control of copyrights and products, as seen with low-cost music and DVD copies. Convergence enables content to flow across multiple platforms but does not guarantee its promises if companies exaggerate claims beyond what technologies can truly deliver.

1. MAC301 [email_address]

2. Digitisation Convergence Mobile phones Summary

3. Increased tendency in recent years to encode visuals, sound and print in binary digital terms All of our media platforms are pushing towards digital platforms

4. Analogue signal to give way (2012) Make way for: Mobile Television services Wireless broadband services Wider coverage for advanced services in remote and rural areas High definition services

5. Digital compression allows for more efficient use of bandwidth

8. Convenient for content owners to manipulate/edit Push comes from consolidation in large media entities Digital distribution is a lot cheaper than physical distribution

10. [Benefits] ‘to the consumer only seem to come when the multi-nationals lose control of product and copyright – music on the Internet, pirate DVD copies, cheap copies of equipment from the developing world ... Convergence does not simply generate new media. It opens up new possibilities for “old media ”’ Burton, 2005: 211

12. ‘ A word that describes technological, industrial, cultural, and social changes in the way media circulates within our culture. Some common ideas referred by the term include the flow of content across multiple media platforms, the cooperation between multiple media industries , the search for new structures of media financing that fall at the interstices between old and new media, and migratory behaviour of media audiences who would go almost anywhere in search of the kind of entertainment experiences they want ’ Jenkins, 2006: 282

13. ‘ Once upon a time .. companies that published newspapers, magazines, and books did very little else; their involvement with other media was slight’ Ithiel de Sola Pool, 1983: 23

14. Piracy as threat to industry or evidence of new opportunities?

15. http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=2uQLeE_LYx0

16. 24: Conspiracy (2004) Prison Break: Proof of Innocence (2006) Lost: Missing Pieces (2007)

17. Dr Who See Perryman, 2008 BBC, 2007: they "were not the hit we expected although they were popular on broadband”

18. Bollywood movie Rok Sako To Rok Lo (2004)

19. Touted as ‘revolutionary’ convergence device Steve Jobs, Mac World expo, 2007

20. http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=8sPVfFXC6AY Complaint to ASA (August 2008) http://www.asa.org.uk/asa/adjudications/Public/TF_ADJ_44891.htm

21. http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=OknElEusVhM Complaint to ASA (November 2008) http://www.asa.org.uk/asa/adjudications/Public/TF_ADJ_45381.htm November 2008-12-08 Trust in corporations?

22. http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=TrT1gzQHsI4 Access to 2 million+ tunes from Sony, Warner, Universal Annual cost approx £300

23. ‘ Black Box Fallacy’ (Jenkins, 2006: 13-14)

24. Promise of convergence = hype? iPhone = camera, Internet, music, movies, phone Convenient ‘Black Box’?

25. Convergence is a process not an end point (Jenkins, 2006: 16)

26. To what extent is convergence a promise that fails to deliver? How important is multi-functionality to new media hardware/software providers? Is it worth companies exaggerating claims over products and services if they cannot possibly deliver what they actually suggest? Can we trust the media?

28. BBC, 2007, Annual Report and Accounts 2006-7, http://www.bbc.co.uk/annualreport/2007/ BBC, 2008, ‘Apple profits up on iPhone sales’, http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/7682962.stm Graeme Burton, 2005, Media and Society: critical perspectives , Maidenhead: Open University Press Gizmodo, 2004, ‘Indian Film “Rok Sako To Rok Lo” to Premiere via Cellphone’, http://gizmodo.com/gadgets/cellphones/indian-film-rok-sako-to-rok-lo-to-premiere-via-cellphone-027046.php Henry Jenkins, 2006, Convergence Culture: Where old and new media collide , New York University Press: New York & London Steve Jobs, 2007, Mac World Expo San Francisco keynote. Nicholas Negroponte, 1995, Being Digital , New York: Alfred A Knopf Neil Perryman, 2008, ‘Doctor Who and the Convergence of Media: A Case Study in “Transmedia Storytelling”’, Convergence: The International Journal of Research into New Media Technologies , 14 21. Jonathan Richards, 2008, ‘Nokia takes on Apple with “all you can eat” music’, http://technology.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/tech_and_web/article4660380.ece Jeremy Rifkin, 2000, The Age of Access: How The Shift From Ownership To Access is Transforming Modern Life , Ringwood, Victoria: Penguin Book Ithiel de Sola Pool, 1983, Technologies of Freedom: On Free Speech in an Electronic Age , Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press Mark Sweeney, 2008, ‘Project Kangaroo punctured by Competition Commission’, The Guardian Dec 3 rd , http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2008/dec/03/project-kangaroo-competition