Convergence and The Relationship Between Media Producers and Consumers

Let's say you have a favorite show on television that you live and die by. You schedule your days around this show. But, much to your dismay, you have a prior, weekly commitment every time your show is on air. What are you going to do? An easy question to answer if you have access to the internet: you go online to watch the episode(s) you missed. As media outlets expand, we no longer solely rely on newspapers, the radio, or even television to gain access to the information we want and the shows we want to watch. Henry Jenkins addresses this reality he calls "convergence" in his book titled Convergence Culture. In the introduction, he defines convergence as "the flow of content across multiple media platforms" (2). Now that media is uploaded online, media companies are required to rethink what it means to consume media and, furthermore, must accept the fact that if they want to remain relevant and popular to the public, they need to adapt to these technological expansions.

Take most TV personalities. They have expanded their medium of media (I know, difficult to say). The Ellen DeGeneres Show is not solely visible on TV anymore. She acknowledged that her audience is not only in front of their TV screens at home, but they are now online. For this reason, she adopted her own twitter where she not only tweets random happenings and thoughts during the day, but also interacts with her followers. She also has her own YouTube channel where there are uploaded snippets of her shows as well as additional footage. New and old media are colliding. Media producer and media consumer are now interacting.
Ellen has even brought YouTube users and "stars" on her show, thus representing the increasing interaction between media producer and media consumer. Ellen brought two little girls from YouTube on her show who performed the song Super Bass by Nicki Minaj.





Due to the impact of media companies expanding the potential markets across difference popular platforms, Ellen is appealing to a wider audience and allowing for this interaction between media producer and media consumer. This convergence is highly important if Ellen wants to remain in business and connect with her audience. Some of these media companies or successful franchises "originate on television, on the big screen, some as books, and some as games, but each extend outward from it's originating medium to influence many other sites of cultural production" (19).