The limitless informational possibilities of our days set a rapid development vector not only in the volume and quality of information, but also in the methods of presenting it to a wide audience. And the main engine of all this convergence mechanism, in which the borders and barriers in many plans simply cease to exist, is the emergence of the latest information and communication technologies.
First of all, their influence in a tangible way affects the transformation in journalism, thanks to which the media are mastering new information platforms and more technological methods for delivering content.
The origins of the modern trend
The usual modern significance of convergence for journalism in 1970 was introduced by the American sociologist Daniel Bell, the author of the theory of the formation of a post-industrial society. At that time, this term meant the merger of computers, telephones, televisions into single technological devices.
However, only with the beginning of the 90s, when the Internet was rapidly and widely distributed among millions of users, convergent journalism received a powerful impetus from the “periodically discussed topic” to the most promising format for information broadcasting. And in the past 20 years, the concept of multimedia has begun to be seriously discussed in professional circles.
Global integration processes
The merging of various genres of journalism (print, radio, television, online publications) is carried out at several conditional levels. Moreover, in each of them the scale of convergence and its results vary significantly:
- The most “primitive” level is the convergence of technical devices used by journalists to collect and process informational material. Such processes give rise to the emergence of new gadgets, the handling of which requires an appropriate level of competence.
- Therefore, the next level is the convergence of professionalism (experience, knowledge, skills). Employees of various departments and editorial offices are united in a single team to develop multimedia material.
- In the future, a more complex, wide and universal format of content creates all the prerequisites for interaction between entire genres of media (print media, radio, television, etc.), which is the peak of the development of converged journalism in general.
Based on the multimedia basis for presenting information, modern media companies distribute their content to the widest possible range of media platforms (for example, Internet radio, a newspaper on an online platform, or the Web-TV format).
In a broad sense, the Latin term “convergo” implies not only the mutual influence of any phenomena on each other, but also the unlimited exchange of technology, experience, and means. And in the case of the phenomenon of convergent journalism, mutual integration is manifested as a process of transmitting the same information using a number of media (text, sound and video) using various communication channels (print, broadcasting, television and the most popular format today - The Internet).
New technologies in journalism
The global spread of the Internet has led to the fusion of traditionally separate genres of information broadcasting into a single whole, which even in the recent past seemed absolutely unattainable.
Previously, a person, in order to find out about the latest news, needed to use the radio. It was possible to see the recording of what was happening only with the help of a TV. A more detailed and detailed information was expected only on the pages of new newspaper issues.
The current media convergence process allows for the integration of audio, video and textual information within a single published material. Of course, the process of creating a multimedia product requires experience, qualifications and material costs. The latter are clearly expressed in the need to have the appropriate equipment in terms of power and functionality, to pay for the work of photo and video editing specialists (not to mention editors, journalists, etc.).
Thus, technological progress, bringing the latest information carriers capable of storing visual, textual and audio data at the same time, has created the basis for the successful integration of the press, radio and television into single information resources.
The merger of media and communication technologies into a single journalistic field
The constantly changing media landscape (the totality of the most popular communication technologies / services in the world) in one way or another brings subtle demarcation to the ranks of modern media, taking into account which one can distinguish entire genres of convergent journalism:
- Media - publications of a fairly local plan, focused mainly on a specific region. Their activities are limited to one of the components of the media: newspaper, radio, television or an Internet resource. It is this type that most fully reflects what readers today call "traditional news." As for convergence, in this category it is usually implemented no further than 1-2 levels described earlier.
- Hypermedia - this genre of convergent journalism is not limited to just one media platform for providing its content. For example, an online newspaper, which is also published in print. Most often they are meant by the term “multimedia” / - a combination of visual material, audio, graphics and other means of presenting information in a text material. Integration in hypermedia, respectively, proceeds at all three levels.
- Transmedia is a rather controversial genre, disputes about which have not subsided so far. Particular attention is paid to social networks (one of the examples of transmedia), which by their nature only partially possess the signs and functions of the media. In this case, the informativity of the content itself is called into question, since it is not the journalists who create and edit it, but the users, who are mostly inclined to more communicative (conversational) means of notification. In addition, a similar media platform, which goes far beyond the scope of journalistic activity in its functionality and practical application, many experts urge not to perceive as a serious innovation. After all, transmedia provides users with not only journalistic works, but also advertising, entertaining content and much more.
Cross-media synonym
The concept of “convergent journalism” is often replaced by a more professional - “cross-media”. This is due to the proximity of the essence of these terms. But with all the similarities, the difference between the two lies in the less generalized meaning of the latter.
Cross-media necessarily implies the use by a publication of at least two broadcasting platforms (print, television, digital, etc.), as well as the distribution of content to a number of technical devices (televisions, tablets, smartphones and other gadgets). It is the emphasis on various types of platforms in their work that makes journalism cross-media.
A multimedia approach to finding material
Converged journalism always involves the use of various audio, video and photo materials in publications, extending them to the widest possible range of broadcast devices. It is on such a simple theoretical principle that the rather difficult in practice process of searching, processing and processing information obtained by journalists is built:
- Reporting from the scene must certainly be carried out using video cameras and subsequent editing of the most significant moments. For example, the work of the print media, if in other cases involves the shooting of video material, is solely for affiliate TV channels.
- In addition, relevant photographs are certainly required.
- Full integration of all staff in creating media content. Teams of journalists from different departments of a multimedia company in one form or another are organized in work with each other, carrying out not only a comprehensive search for material, but also creating a visual design for the content. At the same time, there is a joint work on the database, infographics and other media elements.
- Finally, cooperation between various multimedia media in the creation of joint projects, the search and editing of material is not excluded.
Sometimes online journalism is equated with the status of converged media, which is a rather inaccurate assessment of these information resources. Since they are posted on the Internet, the multimedia approach to creating material for them is only an additional element in the presentation of content, but by no means a standard broadcast format.
Age figures
In turn, publications whose basis is directly based on the Internet have received a separate name for their category - digital journalism. Sometimes the term synonymous with flash journalism is used (derived from the Adobe Flash program, which is an easy and popular tool for creating, publishing, and editing multimedia content online).
In addition to using the capabilities of the World Wide Web to create and promote their content, digital publications also involve the search for sources in an environment of various network resources. These include blogs, news sites, RSS feeds, and social networks.
Digital journalism (whether it be an online newspaper, a news site, etc.) is directly related to convergent features of its multimedia capabilities and the use of the Internet platform to publish content.
From critics notes
However, the merging of various genres of journalism into a single information resource was not without skeptics and ardent opponents. Thus, the negative side of convergent media is primarily the question of the quality of the submitted material.
The heated debate does not cease whether media companies can work as professionally with the same content, presenting it on several different platforms at once. Moreover, not only Western, but also domestic journalism is endowed with such attention, which today also has many large multimedia media representatives.
What does the dear publisher get in the end?
The development of multimedia not only allowed us to synthesize photos, video and audio in the content, but also introduced the ability to add hyperlinks to other resources in publications, introduce interactive forms of voting, ratings and comments. One cannot but agree that this approach represents not only more informative and diverse content, but also significantly affects its perception as a whole. For example, if in traditional genres the text often played the main informative role, then in multimedia publications this function can already be assigned to video or photo sequences. And the words at the same time fade into the background, playing the role of explanatory comments, clarifications, headings.
As for the audience, its passive consumer nature has undergone significant changes and is now more active in readers, who, in turn, have the means to influence the information field. At the same time, users received ample opportunity to individually select the desired format, topic and amount of necessary information.
What is new journalism today?
The rapid globalization of information markets with the inevitable disappearance of any boundaries between them provokes the convergence of computer, broadcast and telecommunication technologies among themselves.
Current media resources are mainly focused on the screen. Displaying videos, photos, graphs significantly increases the convenience of perceiving information, presenting its full volume in a more concise form. At the same time, various combinations of sound, image and text are implemented; and the level of quality of this process is limited only by the creative skills of the work collective and the material base.
In addition, public opinion plays an important role in the formation of new journalism, which gained wide freedom of expression due to the appearance of interactive elements in media resources. Hundreds of comments, thousands of votes in polls, public ratings and voting - all this has become a user tool for real impact on the information environment, which also affects the vector of development of media content.
Media environment defines consciousness
The combination of diverse media in one product sets new standards and standards in the work of journalists, who are required today to have a number of relevant skills for high-quality presentation of material in the right format. Achieving such goals requires new journalists to be versatile in the media field, as well as skillful work with materials of various types and character.
For the most accurate presentation of content in the right format and content, a universal media worker must be able to professionally perform a whole list of diverse functions. Among them:
- ability to record video material;
- writing informative and competent text;
- record audio podcasts;
- installation skills;
- experience working with the blogging industry.
Describe your profile, new journalist
The current requirements require a special, multimedia type of thinking for each employee of the described sphere. And it should be displayed, first of all, in professional skills:
- in the ability to shoot video reports and take pictures;
- work with various computer programs (this mainly concerns knowledge of the work of editing programs);
- navigate the Internet, working with high-quality and informative sources;
- efficiently and quickly produce news materials for network resources;
- process and transmit bulk data packets of audio and video materials;
- navigate the blogging industry (including not only searching for information, but also directly maintaining various blogs);
- be available to management and team at any moment of the day or night.
As a result, it is precisely such a set of professional qualities and abilities of a journalist that determines the level of quality in creating far from the simplest multimedia publications in their structure.
