Actually, there’s not enough room here to list EVERYTHING that makes me feel stupid. But here’s the lastest…
You know how you go along your daily journey while technology and communication whiz by at warp speed? And then one day, you’re like, “Dude! When did all this happen?” And then another day, when you’re in the mood to learn something, you say, “Man, what’s behind all this stuff?” And then you research it and you find out (duh!), that our entire culture is changing and you’re changing right along with it without even noticing!
What the hay am I talking about? Well, I’ve been writing blogs for www.youplusdallas.com. The larger company is called YouPlusMedia (www.youplusmedia.com). So I decided, after a month of blogging for them, to try to find out what makes them so special. On the “about” page on their web site, they call themselves a “convergence media” company. Wha??
Being the eternal researcher, I just had to look up the term “convergence media.” What I found was (1) it’s not the same as social networking and (2) it has been studied and written about for a while. Where have I been? Writing blogs with my eyes closed, I guess.
Off the subject: Willing to bet my oldest son is way ahead of me on this stuff, as he is with all things technology and anything on www.current.com
Convergence media (or more commonly listed in google searches as media convergence), simply put, is when you take different types of media (words, video, radio, television, etc.) and put them together to tell stories and/or share information.
I did some more reading and came upon yet another thing that’s been going around behind my back! It’s called “collaborative culture” or “participatory culture.” The digital version of this can be best described as the stuff going on with social media sites like Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and other social media outlets.
But here was my “I could have had a V-8” moment…
However, when you combine participatory culture with convergence media, you get companies like YouPlusMedia. Call it “convergence participation”? Ohhhh, did I just coin a term?
I haven’t even scratched the surface, but I’m interested. So I shall research more and keep you posted so you don’t get the “duh” feeling like I did.
