Readings: Introduction: "Worship at the Altar of convergence" - Convergence cultural by jenkins & Deuze First week of school! and the hot topic in PP1 and media Industries 1 tutorials is ... *drum rolls* Convergence! (no prizes for right guesses) Convergence is basically defined as the interlinking of computing and other information technologies, media content and communication networks that have arisen as the result of the evolution and popularisation of the Internet as well as the activities, products and services that have emerged in the digital media space. (Technological convergence. (2010, March 7). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 16:46, March 8, 2010, from http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Technological_convergence&oldid=348241210)

It is very easy to notice the change in our reception of media.The easiest way to notice it is by how we receive media nowadays. 10 years back, we rely on news broadcasts, television, newspaper, radio, magazines. tell me when was the last time you really sat and watched television. ( Tivo or Video on demand not counted, and so are DVDs). I don't watch television. But instead, I have right now on my brower tabs, Facebook, Tweeter, Wholivesnearyou.com, Blogspot and wikipedia. and on top of that I'm on MSN messenger, Listening to a live online radio from Unpopular-music.blogspot.com and I have my handphone beside me that give me Live updates of my Facebook and tweeter account. This says alot about what we are studying here.

Infact, I just received news of Singapore's famous filmmaker, Jack Neo, caught having affairs with 2 young women. where did i get this news? On Facebook. and i double confirmed it on tweeter and tripled confirmed that it is a fact on wikipedia.org. New media is so fast, no one can stop it.

Convergence is where we can receive all forms of media on one platform. The internet, which is of course accessed from our computer. But very soon, we won't even need our computers for receiving media! our phones can do it perfectly and it's so handy we can receive information anywhere, anytime. and it's already happening.

The computer in our basic 3G phone is 1000,000 times more powerful, 10,000 times cheaper and 1000 times smaller than the most powerful computer in MIT in 1965. There is someone who said this once about computers, "What once fits in a building, now fits in our pocket. and what now fits in our pocket, can fit in a red blood cell in a couple of years". Astounding. Imagine the future of media when convergence don't just include technological appliances, but integrated with our body as well, imagine news, information and entertainment to be downloaded into us, to be used at our disposal everyday. the world wide web is just a thought away! Advertising will take on a whole new meaning!

As you can see, Advertising in recent times have changed a fair bit, you just con't reach out to as many with traditional media! Youtube have far more viewership a month than All the big broadcasting corporations's viewership added together! we are already seeing a fall in traditional advertising, tv ads, news ads and radio ads have seen a decline. People will rather pay to not have any Ads on their tv!

whereas ads on Mobile phones, social networking sites and product placement on youtube videos have seen a rise. they reach out to far more receptive audience! Hack, google even tailor the ads for you depending on your searches and the sites you visit! Only Ads that you are interested in and all others are not shown to you! how cool is that!

Convergence has happened, so we better keep up and worship at the altar of convergence!