Convergence for Dummies

Talk about timing!

Today, I discussed digital convergence to my Introduction to Electronic Media class at Fordham. It’s one of those concepts that’s challenging to discuss as part of a single class because it is like explaining the role of money in a capitalist society.

One of the ways that digital convergence impacts electronic media is that it has added a new that could potentially replace the existing distribution of television programming. Whereas the only way to receive a video was to receive a television signal over radio using an antenna, the Internet provides another conduit for accessing television programming. The Business, a weekly radio program on KCRW in Santa Monica, covered the topic of video streaming for consumers. While the discussion reviews the pros and cons of the available gadgets to stream video over the Internet, they also address the possibility for this system replacing traditional cable/satellite distributors as our main gateway to video.

And to their credit they do not once use the word “disrupt.” I really hate that word.

Leave a Comment

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.