Effect of Convergence Culture on Spectatorship

Authors

Amanda Marcus

Abstract

Media convergence has changed how we receive and process information. No longer are we passive spectators, but we are part of the media we consume. Because of the explosion of technology since the turn of the century and a new definition of spectatorship, producers of media can no longer control how their messages are received; they have to engage their audience and listen to feedback in order to remain functioning. Fellow peers serve as informants or as a new source of media. This also affects our individual identities, which shapes our cultural identity. Social media enables us to present ourselves however we want to be perceived, although the irony is that the wide variety of options can become limiting when we have control over them. This paper also addresses the question of what are the consequences for those whom media convergence makes powerless? For cultures that don't have the opportunity to make their voice heard, we are given opportunity to seek out the information ourselves‐‐going through layers of media which convergence has trained us for. In analyzing the data, we see how media convergence allows us be part of the exciting changes that convergence enables us to bring about individual and cultural change.

Recommended Citation

Marcus, Amanda (2013) "Effect of Convergence Culture on Spectatorship," e-Research: A Journal of Undergraduate Work: Vol. 3: No. 3, Article 5.
Available at: https://digitalcommons.chapman.edu/e-Research/vol3/iss3/5