HENRY JENKINS Digital Renaissance Convergence? I Diverge.

hat’s all this talk about ally describing at least five processes: telling, the development of content “media convergence,” this ■ Technological Convergence: What across multiple channels. As produc- W dumb industry idea that all Nicholas Negroponte labeled the trans- ers more fully exploit organic con- media will meld into one, and formation of “atoms to bits,”the digi- vergence, storytellers will use each we’ll get all of our news and enter- tization of all media content. When channel to communicate different tainment through one box? Few con- words, images and sounds are trans- kinds and levels of narrative infor- temporary terms generate more formed into digital information, we mation, using each medium to do buzz—and less honey. Consider this expand the potential relationships what it does best. column a primer on the real media between them and enable them to flow ■ Global Convergence: The cultural convergence, because it’s on the verge across platforms. hybridity that results from the inter- of transforming our culture as pro- ■ Economic Convergence: The horizon- national circulation of media content. foundly as the Renaissance did. tal integration of the entertainment In music, the world-music movement Media convergence is an ongoing process, occurring at various intersec- No single medium is going to win the tions of media technologies, indus- battle for our ears and eyeballs. And tries, content and audiences; it’s not an when will we get all of our media fun- end state. There will never be one black nelled to us through one box? Never. box controlling all media. Rather, thanks to the proliferation of channels industry. A company like AOL Time produces some of and the increasingly ubiquitous nature Warner now controls interests in film, the most inter- of computing and communications, television, books, games, the Web, esting contempo- we are entering an era where media music, real estate and countless other rary sounds, and in cinema, the global will be everywhere, and we will use all sectors. The result has been the restruc- circulation of Asian popular cinema kinds of media in relation to one turing of cultural production around profoundly shapes Hollywood enter- another. We will develop new skills “synergies,” and thus the transmedia tainment. These new forms reflect the for managing information, new struc- exploitation of branded properties— experience of being a citizen of the tures for transmitting information Pokémon, Harry Potter, Tomb Raider, “global village.” across channels, and new creative Star Wars. Much as the historical Renaissance genres that exploit the potentials of ■ Social or Organic Convergence: Con- emerged when Europe responded to those emerging information structures. sumers’ multitasking strategies for the invention and dispersion of mov- History teaches us that old media navigating the new information envi- able type, these multiple forms of never die. And before you say, “What ronment. Organic convergence is what media convergence are leading us about the eight-track,”let’s distinguish occurs when a high schooler is watch- toward a digital renaissance—a period among media, genres and delivery tech- ing baseball on a big-screen television, of transition and transformation that nologies. Recorded sound is a medium. listening to techno on the stereo, word- will affect all aspects of our lives. The Radio drama is a genre. CDs, MP3 files processing a paper and writing e-mail first Renaissance was a period of and eight-track cassettes are delivery to his friends. It may occur inside or political and social instability, and the technologies. Genres and delivery tech- outside the box, but ultimately, it old monastic order crumbled. Today, nologies come and go, but media per- occurs within the user’s cranium. media convergence is sparking a range sist as layers within an ever more com- ■ Cultural Convergence: The explosion of social, political, economic and legal plicated information and entertainment of new forms of creativity at the inter- disputes because of the conflicting system. A medium’s content may shift, sections of various media technolo- goals of consumers, producers and its audience may change and its social gies, industries and consumers. Media gatekeepers. These contradictory forces status may rise or fall, but once a convergence fosters a new participa- are pushing both toward cultural medium establishes itself it continues tory folk culture by giving average diversity and toward homogenization, to be part of the media ecosystem. No people the tools to archive, annotate, toward commercialization and toward one medium is going to “win” the appropriate and recirculate content. grassroots cultural production. battle for our ears and eyeballs. Shrewd companies tap this culture to The digital renaissance will be the Part of the confusion about media foster consumer loyalty and generate best of times and the worst of times, convergence stems from the fact that low-cost content. Media convergence but a new cultural order will emerge when people talk about it, they’re actu- also encourages transmedia story- from it. Stay tuned. ◊

TECHNOLOGY REVIEW June 2001 93