How Tv Is Influenced By Media Technology Development And Convergence?

How TV is influenced by Media Technology Development and Convergence
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In a simple description, technological convergence is a tendency. It is such that, as changes in technology occur, a variety of different systems of technology at times come together and evolves to performing tasks that are similar. Media convergence is as a result of popularization and evolution of internet. Products, services and activities on digital media space, different bodies interlink. These bodies include; communication networks, media bodies, information, and computing technologies. In other terms, the distinct previous media technologies come to share tasks, content, and resources.
Technology is evolving continuously. There was a time when the common source of media was the newspaper, then the radio, then the television among others. It should, however, be noted that as much as there is evolution, the old form of media is not discarded or kept in museums, no, they are still put in use. This is why people immersed in media will be found reading newspapers in this digital error. What technology has done is to put all this media technology in one component such that it can be easily accessed from a single gadget such as a Smartphone or a personal computer (Jack, 2010). This is what is referred to as media convergence, the coming together, in other terms.
Television has played a vital role as a mass medium over the decades. It has attracted people of all ages by different programs it offers (Civi, 2014). It has been a very effective medium for mass communication. Besides the number of programs such as movies, advertisement television offers, news has been its primary role.
The growth and development of media technology and convergence have proved to be a threat to television. Its primary role has been overtaken by other gadgets. According to Thaddeus, in his interview, conducted by a Nottingham Trent University student, Jenna Batchelor, the media anticipated that there would be this change. They, however, thought that the change was an inconvenience that was temporary and therefore also anticipated that things would be back to normality. How advertisers and consumers viewed the change was exactly the purpose media convergence was fulfilling- the use and value of news to them. The television had not seen this change because if it would, then it could have sought appropriate ways to grow. The delay in action they did is what is causing them a fortune.
The television is losing meaning. In the old generation, television could be defined as a device that has programs well scheduled over a variety of channels. It later transformed to cable, then satellite the internet television. This kind of television could support a more than a hundred channels (Marrie-Jose, 2014). This is no longer it as viewers, through media convergence can watch a number of television programs such as dramas, movies, football, news among others at will. They can as well do it simultaneously through personal computers and Smartphones.
Media convergence has given viewers power to control what they are watching. They can create personal playlists. There is binge-watching that is accommodated by TV websites, applications, and digital recording. It has made people make their commentary moves to other social media like YouTube and not put into much consideration about the TV guide.
The current generation is being raised on media convergence era. They are only being introduced to YouTube, Netflix, and Hulu. When the television operators were threatened by the ‘cord cutters,' they did not know that this was coming their way; the ‘cord Nevers.' The cord cutters only canceled subscriptions of TVs but ‘cord Nevers,' will not buy the television packages. The new way to watch sports, reruns, sports and newscast is through live television over the air (OTA) (Marie-Jose, 2014).
According to Survey Monkey, who conducted a survey in 2014, among its consumers, it reported that the willingness of U.S residents to pay for traditional TV was low. In percentage form, only 54% were willing (Andy, 2014). This is even lower than the total population. This is due to the effect shown earlier called ‘cord-cutting.' In the name of saving money, viewers decide to cut off the services of traditional television and replace them with other media alternatives that are of less cost. The media alternatives like Netflix will only provide the necessary content unlike the bundled content provided by traditional television (Andy, 2014).
Media convergence plays a major role in the manufacturing industry. Device manufacturers have put significant effort into keeping at par with the advancing technology. Manufacturing of devices is continuous and each device being more advanced than the subsequent. There is variation in the perfection of latest games episodes streaming from device to device. The streaming is affected by pixelation and buffering. This can be disturbing and distracting. It can even force the user to l...