Convergence heralds the age of the reader

This was the presentation that never was at Highway Africa. My session got turned into a panel discussion because it was to be broadcast on SABC. So here it is:

The digital age is driving the convergence of devices and media. Convergence isn’t just a techie thing, but a fundamental change in the way we (1) create, (2) distribute and (3) consume media. At the M&G Online we have been more active in exploring the third form of convergence: READER POWER.

Essentially “readers” are being elevated from newspaper letters pages to micro-publishers. Bloggers are mini-media owners, even earning online ad revenue. Reading media is no longer an exercise in passive, one way communication .

Says Henry Jenkins, author “Convergence culture”:

“…where old and new media collide, where grassroots and corporate media intersect, where the power of the media producer and the power of the media consumer interact in unpredictable ways.”

On a converged production level: We have a weekly newspaper and a daily website, so we haven’t found that print-online convergence on a production level is that obvious. The same economies of scale and duplication of tasks just do not exist than say with a daily newspaper and a daily website.