Assignment: 42866367 - Digital Media Convergence

Digital Media Convergence- The Impact of the Internet in correlation to Advertisement

Digital media Convergence in modern day society is often considered as a phenomenon in its ability to manipulate and eject new technologies throughout multiple media scapes. According to Dwyer, “Media convergence is the process whereby new technologies are accommodated by existing media”(T. Dwyer, 2010, Pg2). In correspondence to Digital convergence, societies have seen a gradual shift from analogue to digital media: which has dramatically changed the way in which media is stored, distributed and mediated through mass communication. A poignant example of this movement is seen throughout the Advertisement industry, and its gradual downfall from print through the diffusion of media access through new technologies. The concept of Media Convergence also communicates the way of thinking in which current media industries unwind their dominated ideologies about copyright and ownership.

Producers in Advertisement as Spurgeon says have long ‘distinguished between the informational advertising and other forms that rely on so called creative techniques of persuasion and direct comparison’ (Spurgeon, 2008, Pg. 45). Advertising techniques rather than focusing on the changing nature of trends of conversational interaction and social participation rely on seeking to pleasure the human needs through fabrication differences. These techniques assimilate assumptions that the systems of values consumers relate to, are framed by advertisers, instead considering an element of dissatisfaction that can be subtly implanted, an image being ‘pleasurable in its own right’. (Spurgeon citing Myers, 2008, Pg45)

According to Spurgeon in his journal Advertising and New Media, the Internet was the ‘single most important development for informational advertisers’ (Spurgeon, 2008, Pg45) as it ability to stream informational across multiple institutions. Search base advertisement allows producers to plant their products through formulas of thinking, allowing their ads to not only be seen by interested customers, but also un-interested ones. Advertisement through media search engines also allows opportunities for smaller & marginalized groups whom were dominated by larger mass media players to advocate their products on a much wider spectrum. Search base advertisements allow producers to understanding the significance of informational value, and how it relies heavily on social interaction, and therefore “search advertisers target search means rather than consumers” (Spurgeon, 2008,Pg. 45).

In Michael A. Cacciatore journal Coverage of emerging technologies: A comparison between print and online media, he discusses the emergence of technologies and Nano-technologies between print news and online convergence and their differences between theoretical coverage, how the convergence culture may help establish a new online public sphere for the expression of citizen voices.’ (Cacciatore, 2012, Pg1039).  Cacciatore argues that although there are factors influencing the distribution of information and advertisements throughout print, these factors are irrelevant to the practice online as it involves a participatory culture in the mass consumption. Nano technologies are formed in the forms of Google research, meaning consumers have a greater ability to search specific items of desire. The study concluded than online media sources have greater opportunities in correspondence in content volume and coverage in comparison to old media. This realization, particularly the influences for social media networking and search engines recognize media convergence as a reality that producers of advertisement must distinguish.

Google is a relevant example in advertisement throughout new media in its ability to redefine advertisement techniques through its determination of accurate search results. Now one of the Internet’s most recognizable search engines, it not only provides links throughout multi-media scapes but also provides effective mediation to at length digital pop culture. Google generates multiple possibilities and services for marketing ad advertisement. The company distinguishes prices and placement on their site through the auction of key words. This allows advertisers not only to innovatively examine their company’s image, and configure their success results in search in comparison to advertisement prices but by initiating potential customers by dominating key search results. One key feature that Google offers for advertisers is the connection to AdWord, a self managed site design to help business initiate clever and monitored advertisement throughout the Google database. This allows advertisers to distribute and affiliate inventory with complimentary sites, but also to expand the advertisement abilities and streaming of smaller companies.  An example of this transition is the success story of One True Media, a media and photo distribution site that has experienced a 45% growth simply via AdWord influences over campaigns and audience configuration.

Brand Content is highly recognizable in the strategization of producers to involve customers that are  ‘increasingly distracted, distrustful and disinterested’ (Spurgeon, 2008, Pg46) Brand content, more heavily used in new media illustrates the copy right of an entity, accommodating an image to be distinct and un-comparable. Recently, Google bought the online video streaming site YouTube for 1.65 billion dollars. This development significantly impacts the already competitive online advertisement market, with Google hoping to furtherance in becoming an ‘increasingly lucrative marketing hub as more viewers and advertisers migrate from television to the Internet.’ (The Association Press, 2006)

The Internet has re-contextualized the way in which consumers receive information. The notion of a continuum and mobilized stream of information and products is simultaneously satisfying for producers as it increase possibility and availability aspects for their advertisements but also creates tension as it forces producers to be continuously update and re-configuring images to need the ‘current’ social need. Advertisement also throughout new media and specifically the Internet allow producers to removal the one directional system in place and allow for instant feedback. This allows producers to recognize issues or concerns its popularity, and question target audiences as well as removing market disjuncture’s.

The term Confluence culture constituted by Morrison and Sheeden in their journal Beyond convergence: Confluence culture and the role of the advertising agency in a changing world describes the ‘blending of new and traditional media outlets and blurs the boundaries of professional and amateur’ (Morris & Sheeden, 2009).  The term stresses the need for advertisers to allow a participatory culture flower through the remediation of media to enhance a sense of reality, which can be molded and digitally shared. Correlating closely to Jenkins work, Morrison and Sheeden consider the involvement of amateurs through collective intelligence and the coherence of individuals through advertisement. Therefore, in order to create effective and sustainably thriving ads, producers must abandon traditionally commercial means and allow interactive content to be accumulated by consumers to create their own image about a brand. Marketers of advertisements in order to submerge their products in new technologies but become aware of the importance of brand value, and how it breeds ramifications about the ‘clarity, consistency, and strong brand concentration across each discipline’ (Morrison & Sheeden citing Schultz, 2009).

In Conclusion, the process of Digital Media Convergence is often considered a phenomenon in its ability to transcend Advertisement into a new and contextualized playing field. Although print media provides an original framework to the modes of thinking in retrospect the dispersement of media, digitalization has consumed the new media realm, hopefully creating opportunities for consumers to interrelate with their producers in a confluence culture.

Reference List

Cacciatore, Michael A., Ashley A. Anderson, Doo-Hiu Choi, Dominque Brossard, Dietram A. Scheufele, Xhian Lang, Peter Ladwig, and Michael Xenos. "Coverage of Emerging Technologies: A Comparison between Print and Online Media." New Media & Society 14.6 (2012): 1039-059. Sage Journals. 14 Mar. 2012. Web. 31 Aug. 2012. <http://nms.sagepub.com.simsrad.net.ocs.mq.edu.au/content/14/6/1039.full#sec-6>.

Dwyer, Tim. "Media Convergence." Introduction. Media Convergence. Maidenhead: McGraw Hill/Open UP, 2010. 2. Print.

Sheehan, Kim and Morrison, Deborah (2009) Beyond convergence: Confluence culture and the role of the advertising agency in a changing world in  First Monday vol 14 no 3 - http://firstmonday.org/htbin/cgiwrap/bin/ojs/index.php/fm/article/view/2239/2121

Spurgeon, C. (2008) Advertising and New Media, Oxon, Routledge, pp 24-45

The Association Press. "Google Buys YouTube for $1.65 Billion." NBC News. N.p., 10 Oct. 2006. Web. 31 Aug. 2012. <http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15196982/ns/business-us_business/t/google-buys-youtube-billion/#.UEAdUpi6T7Z>.