In 2004 media moguls like Arthur O. Sulzberger Jr. of the New York Times and Rick Camilleri of CanWest Global Communications Corporation of Canada declared that “convergence is the future.”
Everyone agreed and made attempts at their own interpretations of “convergence.”
Newspapers like the Inquirer in the Philippines tried to come up with an online radio (and ended up establishing a radio station) and a video magazine, which later became a full-blown television show.
Television and radio stations set up online news sites and tried to “copy” what print media has been traditionally doing.
Many of these attempts failed. One can look at the quality of stories these sites are producing.
There was a lot of debate about what “convergence” means.
Larry Pryor, interim editor of the Online Journalism Review and Japan Media Review and a professor in the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Southern California, said a definition was vital.
“If we all have a different concept of what convergence means, we are making it difficult to progress,” he said.
“Convergence is what takes place in the newsroom as the editorial staff works together to produce multiple products for multiple platforms to reach a mass audience with interactive content on a 24/7 basis. Anything less is not journalism convergence, in my view,” Pryor 2004 added.
While media executives see convergence as something that must be done for business to survive, Pryor looks at it as a change of attitude “in the newsroom” among “editorial staff” who must “produce multiple products” “with interactive content” for “multiple platforms.”
It is easier said than done. It requires a change of mindset among journalists. It requires retooling reporters. It requires a lot of investment in training and technology.
Media owners, who seem to only think a good return of their investments, immediately embraced the idea and echoed Sulzberger’s declaration. Websites sprouted like mushrooms after the rain. Reporters were asked to not only write but also take pictures and video without the proper training and understanding of what they are doing.
It was too late for many to realize that mushrooms are not created equal, or are of different species. The experiment mostly resulted in disasters. Investments went down the drain.
Convergence (root word: converge) can only happen if there is something to converge. One definition says it “the combining of different forms of electronic technology, such as data processing and word processing converging into information processing”.
Problems can occur if one forces to converge something out of nothing. There must be different forms first before these forms can converge into something new.
The problem in countries like the Philippines is when media owners/editors (who want to save on the cost of production or do not want to put money where their mouth is) require traditional print reporters, who do not even know how to handle a point-and-shoot camera, to become photographers, or for photographers, who do not even know the difference between a subject and a predicate, to become writers.
Problems come up when reporters and editors become overnight radio commentators (via podcasts) spewing opinions that color their objectivity or the fairness of their coverage, or when website managers dump all content – text, graphic, video and audio – together on the site without consideration on what their audience need.
Innovation is a must for local and regional media to compete in the globalizing media market. Journalists need to adapt to the changing trend in journalism. The playing field is changing fast and new rules are being formulated. The players, media owners and individual journalist alike, must prepare. It is not advisable to just plunge into the game without understanding the rules and studying the field. There must be a strategy for winning. It means money, money that may not come back if not spent wisely.
