Convergence

Convergence

1. What is it?

   • A way to protect their place in the market
   • A chance to deliver news and information to consumers in a new and different way, or to expand the franchise
   • Everything to do with mindset

2. Forms of Convergence

   • Ownership Convergence
     • Applies to the partnerships between large media companies that permits ‘synergy’ cross-promotion and content sharing between print and television owned by the same company
   • Tactical Convergence
     • The partnerships that have arisen in the US media. T.C. does not require common ownership
   • Structural Convergence
     • Occurs when media companies re-organize the newsroom and introduce new positions. It is more related to newsgathering than management
   • Information-gathering Convergence
     • Occurs at the journalistic level and is for situations where media companies require reporters to be multi-skilled
   • Storytelling Convergence
     • It operates at the level of the working journalist, though it needs management support for equipment. Every new medium offers innovative ways to tell stories

3. Driving Convergence

   • It change attitudes and lifestyles of news consumers
   • The growth of the World Wide Web has introduced another competitor for advertising, and at the same time the Web has produced more niche markets
   • Convergence makes it possible to reach many more members of an audience

4. Barriers

   • Legislation that forbids a company from owning a daily newspaper and a television channel in the same market has understandably limited the convergence process
   • Union concerns for their members’ future
   • Companies with strong mono-media traditions such as in the UK or France tend to focus on their traditional strength
   • Convergence included a focused leadership, the same owner, a flexible culture, co-location of media outlets, previous relationships between potential partners and no unions

5. Conclusion

   • Convergence produces many challenges, for both journalists and publishers. Both groups need to find a way to gather and fund news for different platforms without compromising the needs of their audiences, and while maintaining ethical business practices
   • Convergence is about doing better journalism
   • Journalism needs to be a product of ‘‘sense-making based on synthesis, verification and fierce independence.
   • Introduce convergence as a way to save money, reporters could become too busy to verify the information they find and resort to publishing material supplied by professional spin-doctors

6. based on Convergence's fundamental question by Stephen Quinn