Cultural limits to convergence (original) (raw)

Convergence: A Framework for Discussion

Convergence in European Digital TV …, 1999

The introduction aims to develop a wider framework in which the regulatory issues raised by convergence - and discussed in the following chapters - can be identified and analysed from a historical and comparative perspective. Moreover there is a widespread belief - which underpins this book - that television (the dominant audiovisual medium) is of crucial importance within these developments. For the great majority of Europeans, it is and will remain the major source of information, of entertainment and of culture. Furthermore the audiovisual industry is one of the major growth markets and industrial sectors, and has significant potential for job creation. Convergence issues within a television setting are therefore still debated within this traditional ‘culture versus commodity’ paradigm. However the developments currently underway in the broad communications field represent a fundamental paradigm shift away from these conventional policy modes. The aim of this introduction is then to highlight the fundamental shift in attitudes and assumptions concerning the approaches of regulation and the definition of the public interest in communications, largely driven by the globalization of trade, and the economic and social benefits fostered by convergence.

A Review of Convergence in Information and Communication Technology

2014

Convergence is the interlinking of computing and other information technologies, telecommunications networks and media content that originally operated largely independently. Convergence has arisen as a result of the evolution and popularization of the internet as well as the activities, products and services that have emerged in the digital media space. Convergence plays an important role in society from the economic, social, and development perspective. It can influence the way in which governments develop appropriate policy while looking for social welfare; enterprises compete in the market; and individuals communicate with each other and benefit from efficient and lower-cost, innovative and new value-added products and services. Technological convergence has raised a number of issues of adjustment to the new environment by telecom operators, service providers, policymakers, regulators, and users. Issues like interoperability, interconnection, Policy and regulatory framework, con...

ICT and Convergence

This is a 2007 MA class term paper taking a look at media convergence. though a class work, the paper took inspiration from a fres read in 2007 of Frances Cairncross's 2007 book, "The Death of Distance: How Communications Revolution is Changing Our Lives"

Digital Possibilities, Market Realities: The Contradictions of Communications Convergence

Socialist Register, 2009

A dvances in communications technology over the last forty years have generated considerable rhetoric and hyperbole about the transformations in social relationships they would both enable and compel. In particular, the emergence of the computer as a tool for storing and rapidly manipulating increasingly large sets of data, and its convergence with telecommunications systems providing the means for swift and extensive transmission and carriage, has been the root of endless discussion about the presumed arrival of an 'information society'. 1 The convergence of these developments, both technologically and organizationally, with the broadcasting industry has completed a fusion offering genuinely massive transformations in the worlds of work and leisure. The technological core of these developments, digitization, involves the common transformation of a variety of modes of communication-print, speech, audiovisual materials, raw data-into a common form as electronic binary digits. This allows each form to be readily transmuted into any of the others, and for all of them to be stored, retrieved, manipulated, and distributed with unprecedented facility through the merged apparatuses of computing and telecommunications. Our concern here is not with the arguments about whether or not these innovations permit us to diagnose a transformation into a new kind of society. Suffice to say we understand them to have made major impacts on the relations between human beings and their environments, and between differing groups and social sectors, but in ways that largely enhance or recompose existing relationships. In short, the political economy of these changes will identify shifts

Research in Convergence: A Literature Analysis

2010

Convergence is a complex phenomenon which involves multiple economic layers of regulatory bodies, industries, firms and users, and poses both challenges and opportunities for all of them. Although research on convergence has recently grown, there is little research which reviews the studies of convergence in the past and present, and critically discusses the development of convergence research. To fill this gap, this paper examines the current status of convergence research by use of a library meta-search engine. The analysis of the articles retrieved offers a series of snapshots regarding present studies on digital convergence in terms of the type of convergence dealt with, the level of analysis, and so on. The analysis also shows that most research by now is theoretically oriented at the macro level (i.e. regulatory and industrial), and suggests that more empirical research from the micro perspective (i.e. firms and users) is required.