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MEDIA MERGENCE
Every time a new technology is introduced in the sphere of mass
media and a new media organ is
created, there appears a situation where new form of mass
communication gets its source material from the
media organs already in vogue.
The mediated communication which is always based on certain
technology also needs contents which must
be made the main area of mass communication. Hardly there has
been a situation when a new technology
has also brought altogether new topics to be talked about with
the help of new science. Here we will see
how the advent of various technologies has led to media
combination.
From Print to Electronic Amalgamation
Print media had been enjoying a unique distinction in the
society for almost four hundred years
when in the first quarter of the 20th century radio was
introduced on the basis of electromagnetic waves
technology. It was first time that the people experienced a
wireless communication at massive scale.
Radio brought with it listening pleasure – music, talks and news
etc. But the nature of contents in news, talk
shows, discussions, educational programmes and comments was not
new. More or less it was dealing with
the same content people had been familiar with over the years
because of print media. The only change was
the new technology. Contents were the same. So one can say that
radio was a mergence of print and
electronic media as far content were concerned.
Radio, TV mergence
Although TV was also based on radio wave technology, the
carrying of images through
electromagnetic waves gave it a unique distinction and in the
eyes of common people TV has been a
different entity.
But on the content side, TV picked many ideas from radio formats
like group discussions, musical
programmes, and commentary on sporting events, and presentation
of news. The changes were only due to
presence of images.
TV and computer getting one - IPT (Internet protocol TV)
In the third quarter of the 20th
century scientists were successful in
using the digital technology for
carrying contents which were earlier carried only through analog
techniques. This led to a marriage between
the analog and digital technologies and it is here that the
subject of mergence of media has emerged.
This new combination is exclusive in the sense that it not only
brings the contents of sound and images
together and all the formats of programme remain intact, it at
the same time brings the two technologies at
one point.
In coming years you would be able to use your computer as TV and
if you desire, TV set could also be used
as computer because most TV sets manufactured after 2006, or so,
would carry a chip which would enable
decoding of messages transmitted through digital technology.
So, when we say that the media will converge, we mean that
current television shows will merge into a
hybrid with World Wide Web style content. Television shows will
have other types of media like text
merged into them, and World Wide Web pages will begin to be
temporal entities that tell a story. Another
way of looking at this is that both your television and your
computer will be running a similar super browser
which will allow the same content to be viewed on both devices.
Also, to say that the two converge it is not
enough to say that you will be able to watch television on your
computer-- that merely means that television
content is a sub-set of computer content and is already possible
today. For the two to truly converge the
content that can be received by both devices should be the same.
When we say that the media will not converge, we mean that
television shows and world wide web content
will remain distinct media forms, and that you will use your
television for watching television shows, and
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your computer to view and browse web content. While both media
types may have evolved, they will
remain different from one another.
People will cease distinguishing between computers and
televisions:
The second topic for the debate will be that the computers and
televisions as devices will merge. In
this case the argument is that sometime in the future there
won't be "televisions" and "computers", but
some new device that encapsulates the behavior of both. This
"viewer" will come in different sizes and
shapes, but will be thought of as one item, just like little TVs
and big TVs in people's minds are considered
one type of device. While you may be more inclined to use the
"viewer" on your desk to browse the web,
and the "viewer" in the home theater to watch movies, you would
be willing to do either task on either
device. In other words, if you were at your desk working on a
"viewer" and a friend called up telling you to
check out a show, you would just switch the "viewer" to that
show, rather than going into another room to
find a "TV viewer".
Non-convergence in this case is the argument that, while TVs may
take on some computer-like functionality
and vice versa, fundamentally the two will be thought of as
different devices. Doing research and browsing
the web will be done on a computer, and watching shows and
movies will be done on a television.
Finally, it is important to make one final point on the debate
framework. There are always extreme points
in the adoption of technology. Since there is no technical
reason why a television can't have the same
functionality as a computer, or vice versa, it is quite likely
that both computer powered TVs and computers
that can display television will be around in the future.
Nature of program remains a question
On account of this, the debate will center on what functionality
the majority of televisions and
computers will have, and what types of media will be broadcast
for a majority of broadcast hours. The
main question we consider is whether televisions and computers
will come to be more similar on average as
time goes on, or whether they will evolve along mostly
independent paths.
Economic reasons
Media convergence is an economic strategy in which
communications companies seek financial
benefit by making the various media properties they own work
together. The strategy is a product of three
elements: 1) corporate concentration, whereby fewer large
companies own more and more media
properties; 2) digitization, whereby media content produced in a
universal computer language can be easily
adapted for use in any medium; and 3) government deregulation,
which has increasingly allowed media
conglomerates to own different kinds of media (e.g., television
and radio stations and newspapers) in the
same markets, and which has permitted content carriage companies
(e.g., cable TV suppliers) to own
content producers (e.g., specialty TV channels). The strategy
allows companies to reduce labour,
administrative and material costs, to use the same media content
across several media outlets, to attract
increased advertising by providing advertisers with package
deals and one-stop shopping for a number of
media platforms, and to increase brand recognition and brand
loyalty among audiences through crosspromotion
and cross-selling. At the same time, it raises significantly the
barriers to newcomers seeking to
enter media markets, thus limiting competition for converged
companies.
DI
Digital Cinemas
CINEMA
People have become increasingly interested in studying new
aesthetic forms that have emerged in response
to the potentials of digital media. One such area of interest is
digital cinema. Digital cinema can refer to
many different things, ranging from the use of digital cameras
in film production or digital projection in film
exhibition to the use of the web as a delivery system for films.
The Digital Cinema conference explored
many different aspects of this topic.
SDTV
Standard digital television
HDTV144
High definition television |
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