The limitless information possibilities of our days set a rapid vector of development not only in the volume and quality of information, but also in the methods of its presentation to a wide audience. And the main driver of this whole mechanism of convergence, in which 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 has a tangible impact on the transformations in journalism, thanks to which the media are mastering new information platforms and more technological methods of presenting content.
The origins of the current trend
The usual modern meaning of convergence for journalism in 1970 was put into use 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 merging of computers, phones, televisions into single technological devices.
However, it was not until the early 1990s, when the Internet was rapidly and widely adopted by millions of users, that convergent journalism received a powerful boost from the "periodic topic"to the most promising format of information broadcasting. And in the last 20 years, the concept of multimedia has begun to be seriously discussed in professional circles.
Global Integration Processes
Merging different 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 information 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 unite into single teams to develop multimedia material.
- In the future, a more complex, broad and universal content format creates all the prerequisites for interaction between entire media genres (print, radio, television, etc.), which is the peak of the development of convergent journalism in general.
Based on a multimedia-based presentation of information, modern media companies distribute their content to the widest possible range of media platforms (be it, for example, Internet radio, a newspaper on an online platform, or Web-TV format).
In a broad sense, the Latin term "convergo" means not only mutu althe impact of any phenomena on each other, but also the unlimited exchange of technologies, experience, and means. And in the case of the phenomenon of convergent journalism, mutual integration manifests itself as the process of transmitting the same information using a variety of media (text, sound and video) using various communication channels (print, radio, television and the most popular format today). - Internet).
New technologies in journalism
The global spread of the Internet has led to the merging of traditionally separate genres of information broadcasting into a single whole, which even in the recent past seemed absolutely unattainable.
Earlier, in order to find out about the latest news, a person had to use the radio. It was possible to see the recording of what was happening only with the help of a TV. And more detailed and detailed information was expected only on the pages of new newspaper issues.
The current process of media convergence allows you to combine audio, video and text 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 equipment that is appropriate 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 storage media capable of simultaneously storing visual, textual and sound data, created the basis forsuccessful integration of the press, radio and television into single information resources.
Merge of media and communication technologies into a single journalistic sphere
The ever-changing media landscape (a set of the most popular communication technologies/services in the world) in one way or another introduces a subtle division into the ranks of modern media, taking into account which entire genres of convergent journalism can be distinguished:
- Media - editions of a rather local plan, focused mainly on a certain region. Their activities are limited to one of the components of the media: newspaper, radio, television or Internet resource. It is this type that most fully reflects what readers today call "traditional news". As for convergence, in this category it usually occurs no further than 1-2 levels described earlier.
- Hypermedia - This genre of convergent journalism is not limited to just one media platform to deliver its content. For example, an online newspaper that is also published in print. It is they who most often mean the rest under the concept of "multimedia" / - a combination in the material of the text of the visual range, audio, graphics and other means of presenting information. Integration into hypermedia, respectively, proceeds at all three levels.
- Transmedia is a rather ambiguous genre, disputes about which have not subsided so far. Particular attention is paid to social networks (one example of transmedia), which in theiressences only partially possess the features and functions of the media. In this case, the very information content of the content is called into question, since it is not journalists who create and edit it, but users who are mostly prone to more communicative (conversational) means of notification. In addition, such a media platform, which in terms of its functionality and practical application goes far beyond the scope of one journalistic activity, is urged by many experts not to be perceived as a serious innovation. After all, transmedia provides users with not only journalistic works, but also advertising, entertainment content and much more.
Cross-media synonym
The concept of "convergent journalism" is often replaced by a more professional one - "cross-media". This is due to the closeness of the essence of these terms. But with all the similarities, the difference between them lies in the less generalized meaning of the latter.
Cross-media necessarily implies the use by the publication of at least two broadcasting platforms (print, television, digital, etc.), as well as the distribution of content to a range of technical devices (TVs, tablets, smartphones, etc. gadgets). It is the emphasis on various types of platforms in its activities that makes journalism cross-media.
Multimedia approach to material discovery
Convergent journalism always involves the use of various audio, video and photo materials in publications, distributing them to the widest possible range of devicesbroadcasting. It is on such a simple theoretical principle that the process of searching, processing and processing the information obtained by journalists, which is quite difficult in practice, 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 print media, if in other cases it involves shooting video material, then only for partner TV channels.
- Besides this, appropriate photographs are also required.
- Full integration of all working staff in the creation of media content. Teams of journalists from different departments of a multimedia company are organized in one form or another to work with each other, carrying out not only a comprehensive search for material, but also compiling the visual design of the content. At the same time, we are working together on a database, infographics and other media elements.
- Finally, cooperation between various multimedia media in creating joint projects, searching for and editing material is not excluded.
Sometimes online journalism is also equated with the status of convergent 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.
The era of numbers
In turn, publications based directly on the Internet received a separate name for their category -digital journalism. The term is sometimes used synonymously with "flash journalism" (derived from the Adobe Flash program, which is a lightweight 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 searching for sources in the environment of various network resources. These include blogs, news sites, RSS feeds, social networks.
Digital journalism (be it an online newspaper, news site, etc.) is directly related to convergent journalism in terms of its multimedia capabilities and use of the Internet platform for publishing content.
From Critics' Notes
However, the merging of various genres of journalism into a single information resource has not been without skeptics and ardent opponents. Thus, the negative aspects of convergent media include, first of all, the issue of the quality of the material presented.
There is also a heated debate about whether media companies can work just 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 also today has many large multimedia media representatives.
What does the dear reader get in the end?
The development of multimedia not only made it possible to synthesize photos, videos and audio in content, but also broughtthe ability to add hyperlinks to other resources in publications, to enter interactive forms of voting, ratings and comments. One cannot but agree that this approach not only provides more informative and diverse content, but also significantly affects its perception in general. For example, if in traditional genres the text often performed the main informative role, then in multimedia publications this function can already be assigned to video or photo series. And the words at the same time fade into the background, acting as explanatory comments, clarifications, headings.
As for the audience, its passive consumer character has undergone significant changes and is now more active readers, who, in turn, have the means to influence the information field. At the same time, users received ample opportunities for individual selection of the desired format, subject and amount of necessary information.
What the new journalism stands on today
The rapid globalization of information markets with the inevitable disappearance of any boundaries between them provoke the convergence of computer, broadcasting and telecommunication technologies among themselves.
Current media resources are mostly focused on the screen. Showing videos, photos, graphs significantly increases the convenience of information perception, presenting its full volume in a more concise form. Various combinations of sound, image and text are simultaneously carried out; and the level of quality of this processlimited only by the creative skills of the work team and the material base.
Besides, the public opinion plays an important role in shaping the new journalism, which has gained wide freedom of expression thanks to the emergence 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 media content development.
Media environment determines consciousness
The combination of diverse media tools in one product sets new standards and norms in the work of journalists, who today must possess 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 skillfully work with materials of various types and nature.
To provide the most accurate content in the right format and content, a versatile media worker must be able to professionally perform a range of diverse functions. Among them:
- video recording skills;
- writing informative and competent text;
- record audio podcasts;
- montage skills;
- experience with blogging.
Describe your profile, new journalist
Current requirements require a special, multimedia type of thinking for each worker in the described field. Andit should be displayed, first of all, in professional skills:
- in the ability to shoot video reports and take photographs;
- work with various computer programs (mainly knowledge of editing programs);
- navigate the Internet, working with quality and informative sources;
- Quality and fast production of news materials for online resources;
- process and transmit large audio and video data packets;
- navigate in the blogging field (including this includes not only searching for information, but also directly maintaining various blogs);
- be available to management and team at any time of the day or night.
As a result, it is precisely this set of professional qualities and skills of a journalist that sets the bar for quality in creating far from the simplest multimedia publications in terms of structure.
Final conclusion
All modern readers of information publications of various topics and formats, one way or another, are witnessing large-scale changes. The prospects for the development of convergent journalism do not rest only on the transition to a network broadcasting platform and the creation of your own website. Such half-measures, which are most often used by convergent journalism in small media at the regional and corporate level, on the contrary, are a regression in the development of a conceptually new type of mass media.
The essence of the transition to new formats in terms of convergence isusing a huge number of various methods and tools for presenting information in a single published material. A variety of text content variations, advanced graphic technologies, animations, photos, video materials, sound, the introduction of interactive elements for the audience into the resource - that's all that integrated information journalism really rests on, giving users pleasant, conveniently perceived informative material with maximum visibility and the possibility of free expressions of personal reasoning.
The only pressing issue that will only increase as convergent media evolves is the competence of the new workforce, whose skills and mindset must be able to deliver truly high quality multimedia content to audiences.
