Author: BARANOVA E.A.
Abstract: It’s been 20 years since the beginning of media convergence process. And I still see very different interpretations of the term. I think that the definition of “media convergence” should be approached through a detailed description of the process stages. This article is an attempt to describe the complex changes that occur at different stages of convergence development. The author believes that, it comprises two main stages, the first stage includes 3 steps. 1) (mid to late 90s). Mass media sites at that time were the full copies of the newspapers in terms of the content or brochure sites of radio station, TV chains; 2) (early to late 2000s).Transformation of the mass media sites into multimedia resources with the original (non-printable, non-air) content (broadcast media were late with the development of online resources as compared with newspaper sites). Traditional print or broadcast journalists start to create content for online resources. In media companies new departments (web department) and new jobs (web-editor, social media editor) were appearing; 3) (late 2000s to 2010s). The media were beginning to develop new media platforms for content distribution (mobile, PDA, e-paper, kindle-editions, since 2010 – the edition for tablets). The
emergence of a variety of mobile platforms, the increasing popularity of social media, and acceleration of life have led to a trend towards the development of new forms of journalistic content, based on the principle of packet flow information, laconic, content capsule filing. At this point the process of media convergence can stop. The cause is often the legislation in the field of cross-media ownership. Stage II (from the 2000s то present). The integration of the previously different media types (and possibly other sectors of the media business) on the basis of a single medium (usually on the basis of a newspaper editorial office). The result of such integration is often the emergence of convergent (multimedia) news room, bringing together journalists from different media, working together on the production of content. Attempts to create a converged newsroom were based on the possibility of increasing the productivity of labor, increasing the number of products that are produced by the same number of employees. However, in practice it has turned out that the financial costs only increase. Stage III (from the 2014 to present). The author makes an assumption about the
possible beginning of the third stage, which is associated with the development of applications for wearable devices. The author used a systematic approach, actual implementation of which was
carried out by: 1) a conceptual understanding of a wide range of activities; 2) empirical studies (numerous in-depth interviews with the site editors and top managers of Russian media companies), conducted by the author in 2009-2015.
Key words: media convergence; convergence; stages of convergence; the
online editions of the media.
Communicology.
2016. v.4, n.2
BARANOVA Ekaterina Andreevna, PhD, Associate Professor at the Chair of Journalism and Public Relations, Russian State Social University.Abstract: It’s been 20 years since the beginning of media convergence process. And I still see very different interpretations of the term. I think that the definition of “media convergence” should be approached through a detailed description of the process stages. This article is an attempt to describe the complex changes that occur at different stages of convergence development. The author believes that, it comprises two main stages, the first stage includes 3 steps. 1) (mid to late 90s). Mass media sites at that time were the full copies of the newspapers in terms of the content or brochure sites of radio station, TV chains; 2) (early to late 2000s).Transformation of the mass media sites into multimedia resources with the original (non-printable, non-air) content (broadcast media were late with the development of online resources as compared with newspaper sites). Traditional print or broadcast journalists start to create content for online resources. In media companies new departments (web department) and new jobs (web-editor, social media editor) were appearing; 3) (late 2000s to 2010s). The media were beginning to develop new media platforms for content distribution (mobile, PDA, e-paper, kindle-editions, since 2010 – the edition for tablets). The
emergence of a variety of mobile platforms, the increasing popularity of social media, and acceleration of life have led to a trend towards the development of new forms of journalistic content, based on the principle of packet flow information, laconic, content capsule filing. At this point the process of media convergence can stop. The cause is often the legislation in the field of cross-media ownership. Stage II (from the 2000s то present). The integration of the previously different media types (and possibly other sectors of the media business) on the basis of a single medium (usually on the basis of a newspaper editorial office). The result of such integration is often the emergence of convergent (multimedia) news room, bringing together journalists from different media, working together on the production of content. Attempts to create a converged newsroom were based on the possibility of increasing the productivity of labor, increasing the number of products that are produced by the same number of employees. However, in practice it has turned out that the financial costs only increase. Stage III (from the 2014 to present). The author makes an assumption about the
possible beginning of the third stage, which is associated with the development of applications for wearable devices. The author used a systematic approach, actual implementation of which was
carried out by: 1) a conceptual understanding of a wide range of activities; 2) empirical studies (numerous in-depth interviews with the site editors and top managers of Russian media companies), conducted by the author in 2009-2015.
Key words: media convergence; convergence; stages of convergence; the
online editions of the media.
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