Media Convergence

Before the nineties in Hungary, I got the news from our state owned TV stations, radios, and newspapers. This was a heavily one-to-many media communication, surrounded with a lot of suspicions. However, mass media communication and production has changed immensely during the last 20 years. Now with the internet and the digital age media communication is possible on different levels of society all over the world. Media senders, producers, and receivers are now interchangeable.

Producers of new media are democratized and media platforms are converging. This is also evident in cartography. Maps are a form of communication; information is exchanged between the mapmaker and the targeted map reader. For a long time it was a handmade art and science created by a few well trained individuals. Just as mass media, cartography was also made by government agencies, private companies – a communication from a few to many. Now with the help of computers, satellites, and softwares on the internet just about anyone can interact and create their own map. For me this means that I can study map making, get data and information, and share it with others with the help of digital tools.

I also read the New York Times and listen to podcasts on the web now. I don't have to buy the newspaper any more, and there is a greater chance to listen to alternative programs made outside of the big media corporations. Being connected through the net I uploaded personal videos into social networks. Now it is easier to became a media producer. It is quite liberating.

All these examples indicate that media communication and production that was reserved for a few companies and individuals in the past is now practiced by millions of amateurs around the world. Digital platforms, the internet are here to stay; people will connect, produce, distribute, and exchange ideas around the world faster and on different levels. The need for telling their side of the story will reinforce the media tools that we use now and enable more media convergence.

Image source: http://www.alwaysaware.org/