Media Convergence: The Third Age

of Public Information
Dan Shaver
The University of Central Florida
 What is Convergence?
• Delivery Channels?
• Cooperation?
• Something else?
 Assumptions
• Public/Private Information Distinction
– Media Distribute Public Information
– Primary Function
• Primary Drivers of Media Industry
Structure
– Technology
– Audience Expectations and Adoption
– Regulation
 Historic Channels for Public
Information Distribution
• The First Age: Interpersonal/Scribal
• The Second Age: Mass Media
• The Third Age: Converged Digital
 The First Age:
Interpersonal/Scribal

• Dominant until end of 15th Century

• Limited Audience/Accuracy
• No Economic Basis for a Media Industry
• Limited Access, Content and Consumer Power
 The Second Age: Mass Media

• Technology Provides Economic Basis for Industry

• Mass Production Reduces Regulatory Influences
• Feedback Eliminated and Noise Added But Fidelity of
Delivery Increases
 Characteristics of Mass Media
Industries
• Silos Based on Technology
• Regulation of Broadcast Delivery
• Heavily Reliant on Advertising Revenues
– Exceptions:
• Book Publishing
• Entertainment Industries (Film, Recorded Music)
• Increased Competition Generated Shifts in
Content Focus (Radio, Newspapers, etc.)
 Mass Media Powers
• Strong Gatekeeping and Agenda-Setting
Functions
• High Barriers to Entry
• Content For Mass Audiences
• Limited Consumer Power
– Content
– Consumption
 The Third Age
• Enabled by Digital Technology
• Fundamentally Alters Mass Media Powers
– Gate-Keeping through Content Generation
– Barriers to Entry through Regulation and
Economics
– Mass versus Targeted/Specialized Content
– Virtually Total Consumer Power Over What is
Consumed When and How
The Third Age
 Key Third Age Concepts
• The Public Digital Well
– Conceptual Storage Space
– Content Generators Deposit and Content
Consumers Withdraw
• Content Generators
– Traditional Old Media Generators
– Virtually Anyone Else
• Web Pages
• Streaming Audio and Video
 Key Third Age Concepts
• Consumer Power
– Active versus Passive Choice
– Ability to Filter/Avoid Passive Exposure
– Ability to Provide Feedback
• Email
• “Flaming”
• Instant Messaging
• Voice Mail
• Counter Content
 Implications: Content Providers
• New Organizational and Economic
Structures
– Reduction/Elimination of Manufacturing
Components
– Flattening of Distribution Chains
– New Cost/Pricing Structures (e.g., Recorded
Music)
– Need for Exit Strategies from Current Models
 Implications: Content Providers
• New Organizational and Economic
Structures
– Need for Dual Structure over Extended Period
of Time (Market Migration)
– Elimination of Technology Silos Limiting
Content
• Effectiveness Drives Presentation
• Consumer Preference Drives Technology (iPod)
• Adoption of New Consumption Patterns (Tivo)
 Implications: Content Providers
• New Organizational and Economic Structures
– Increasing Importance of Non-Traditional
Information/Content Sources
• Dan Rather and the Bloggers
• Steep Reduction of Power of Gatekeeping and
Agenda-Setting Powers of Traditional Content
Providers
– Reduced Control over Total Content Produced
– Reduced Control over Consumer Content Exposure
 Implications: Content Providers
• Need for New Competitive Strategies
– Counter-programming and Tivo
 Audience Implications
• Geographically Defined Audiences Diminished
• Competition for Audience Attention Must Draw
Rather than Push
– More Niches
– More Interactivity
– New Roles for Advertising (And New Approaches)
– Blurring of Content Lines (Reality, Home Shopping,
etc.)
 Social/Political Implications
• Filtering and a Common Body of
Knowledge?
• Virtual/Psychographic Communities versus
Geographic Communities
• Power to Regulate Media Content
– Howard Stern, HBO and Child Porn
• Digital Divide
– Judgement, not Technology
 Conclusion
• “Convergence” is not just a “technology
thing”
• It is…
– A fundamental change in the relationship
between content producers and content
consumers
– With economic, social and political
implications.
 Conclusion
• It is a new paradigm that represents the
most significant shift in the production and
distribution of public information content
since the printing press.
• And most of us--including those who run
the industries most affected--don’t yet get
it!