This week’s BCM112’S readings and lecture focused on the trajectories of convergence in mass media. Convergence was defined during the lecture as “the flow of content across multiple media platforms, the cooperations between media industries”and this is basically through such transitions noted through technologies like analog to digital; audiences from passive to content to active consumers; industries having a flow of content across several channels. The big message i got from the lecture was that whilst its ineviatbel tht technologies etc will develop and be innnovated, the underlying costs associated with these transitions will remain to have limitations as to how developed the companies who design, decide to make them.
From This:
To This:
Upon reflecting on Mark Federman’s article, it was made clear to me that as humans in modern society, we tend to focus on the “obvious”; what’s right in front of us, rather than extending our views further: “Any extension of ourselves … results from any new technology” suggests Marshall McLuhan, to expand, there are instances when a product is created/innovated, without any conscious thoughts as to what the result may be or how it will affect society which has both its advantages and disadvantages. This is quite common in today’s society; many decisions are made without considering the current conditions that this product/message is being released into such as: cultural, religious and historical contexts. therefore, it can be said that a message being conveyed may possibly be the result of a change in society’s attitude. Similar to this, is the snippet of Henry Jenkin’s book, in which it is suggested that the spread and circulation of media items somewhat depends on the participation of it’s customers and that this consumption of media content is fast becoming a collective process or “collective intelligence.”As humans, we are often distracted by the content of a medium and Federman encourages us to “look beyond the obvious and seek the non-obvious changes or effects that are enabled, enhanced, accelerated and extended by the new thing.” To me, this is a very powerful statement, and if achieved, i believe that this has the chance to be a very special and effective tool for someone and a skill that i hope to develop throughout my BCM112 and blogging experiences.
Aiyana Levin 
Cheers Aiyana for the interesting post. I really enjoyed how you summarized the main parts (or messages) with your own words instead of direct quotes – a valuable academic skill in which I too hope to become better at! 🙂
I could not notice your notion on how in today’s society innovations or products are often made without considering their effects. I am not sure if they always can be. If you think about for example farming as a technology. Sure, it was great for us humans, but it also gave us as species the chance to grow so big in number – and we are starting to reap those unfortunate consequences.
How I also perceive the media is the message, is that not all messages are explicit, but there are also hidden ones. Coming to what for example Aiyana wrote in her blog (http://mab6199.wordpress.com/2013/03/14/the-medium-is-the-message) about how fast we now get information. This is also a message, a message that values information and access to it 24/7. This is perhaps not a moral question, but a question of why do we value it so much, should we, and do all value it? So, looking beyond the obvious in this too. 🙂
Thanks for the post and catch you later in the BCM112 tutorials!