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Jon-Eric Melsaeter

N4243579
1.
Discuss the notion of convergence in relation to the historical development of
multimedia.

This essay will discuss multimedia and convergence and argue that they are
intertextual translators that are extensions of human communication. However, this
essay also recognises some problems, like the increasing generation gap.

The denotation of multimedia is sound, images and text all combined into new media
forms. Examples of this include educational CD-ROMs, movies and certain websites
(sesame street webpage) to name a few. Major developments that have led to the
multimedia environment we have today are:
• Gutenberg’s printing press.
• The telegraph
• The telephone
• The radio
• The television
• The computer
• The Internet

According to McLuhan, the computer is the media-hybrid par excellence. His most
basic observation about multimedia is that every medium uses another medium as
content. He argues that the creative power of the hybrid comes from the fact that
media are translators (McLuhan 1964). This ability to translate can be attributed to
the convergence of these new media forms. In other words, he believed that each
medium converts information from one form into another.

From the 80’s, where convergence was sophisticated but with limited integration, to
today (what isn’t convergent?), it is possible to define convergence as ‘the growing
linkages between media, information technology, and telecommunications (Flew
2000, p.2).
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The three Cs of convergent media (Flew 2000, p.10)

The impact of convergence can be measured on three levels, according to Barr (Barr
2000, Flew 2002). These are: functional convergence, industry convergence and
convergent products & services. According to Flew, the Internet is the single media
platform that can handle multiple media forms (Flew 2000, p. 19). The hybrid energy
created that the networked computer is releasing may create new forms of
communication for future generations. This may also be the greatest challenge and
problem facing convergence on a whole. Modern communication technologies
introduce a staggering pace of change. Although McLuhan argues that as soon as
information is obtained, it is replaced, he recognises that the changes also amplify
the generation gap and further fragment society.

Fragmentation is an idiom often related to post modern academia. John Fiske builds
on Barthes’ notion of intertextuality, which means we make sense of the world by
constantly referring to a growing layer of other texts (Fiske 1987).This is perhaps
where the discussion on multimedia and convergence meets with a greater context.
Baudrillard argues that we are now a hyper-real society that ‘is no longer measured
against some ideal or negative instances (Baudrillard 1988).’ Which is not necessarily
bad, it just means our culture keeps changing. McLuhan believed that our culture is
moving away from customs and beliefs based on books, and adopting approaches
more suited to the new media:

• Complex circular (feedback) flows, rather than simple linear designs.


• Holistic thinking, rather than fragmented ideas.
• Multidimensional perspectives on things.
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• An acceptance of discontinuity in experience and ideas.
• Communication strategies based on appeal to emotion rather than rationality.

(McLuhan 1964)

To summarise, as multimedia has developed, the computer has emerged to be the


platform for multimedia communication. This development is the extension of the
progress of human communication, which is becoming more fragmented and the new
media show this.

Bibliography:

Barr, T (2000), newmedia.com.au, Allen & Unwin, Sydney

Baudrillard, J. (1988), Selected Writings, Cambridge, Polity Press

Flew, T (2002), Chapter 1, ‘Digitisation and convergence: The keys to


understanding new media,’ in New Media: An Introduction, Oxford Press, pp. 9 – 29

McLuhan, M (1964), Understanding Media:The Extensions of Man, Mentor books,


New York

http://www.sesameworkshop.org – last accessed 9. June 2004

2. Explain how meaning can be created within multimedia works through the
incorporation of text. Your answer should include a discussion on how this medium of
communication changes when it is translated from its traditional form into a digital
form (multimedia structure).

Codes and context within social relations, groups, classes, institutions, structures
and things (Thwaites, Davis and Mules 2002, p.2) play a fundamental purpose in
creating meaning. This essay will explore how meanings are created through text,
and discuss what changes are made when this medium is translated into a digital
environment. It will argue that there are certain variables that must be in place for
meanings to be successfully communicated.

Signs consist (according to Saussure) of two elements, a signifier and a signified,


and only gain meaning when ‘it has someone to mean to (Williamson 1978, p.40).’
The reader of a text is therefore very important and will bring his/her own
interpretations to a text by drawing on their own cultural values and perceptual
codes. As the relationship between the signifier and the signified is arbitrary and
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meaning is fixed in cultural values according to most of post modernist theory, we
can argue that the potential interpretations of any given text are therefore endless.
Therefore, a way of producing a meaning stable enough to communicate must
depend on two variables: (1) the maker must understand the kinds of content that
will convey certain meanings in an audience (codes) and (2) that the actual text lays
emphasis on certain meanings over others (context) (Littlejohn 1996).

Chandler notes that the signs (or codes) within a text ‘do not just 'convey' meanings,
but constitute a medium in which meanings are constructed (Chandler’s web source
on semiotics).’ On a basic level, it can show us how meanings construct, maintain
and negotiate certain social beliefs and attitudes in a culture. Roland Barthes
introduced the concept of anchorage (Barthes 1977, p.38ff). Linguistic elements can
help “anchor” (or constrain) the preferred readings of an image: ‘to fix the floating
chain of signifieds (ibid, p.39).’ Accordingly, even if producers try to put across
certain meanings, audiences may or may not assign the same meanings (Littlejohn
1996, p.328).

One apparent change (apart from the transition from physical to non-physical) when
text is translated to a multimedia context is that it ceases to be permanent. When it
is combined with images or sound, it takes on a supportive function as it converges
with the new medium. It has to share meaning, and also abide by the laws of layout
and design. When information becomes digital, it becomes ‘changeable and
adaptable, at all stages of creation, storage, delivery and use (Flew 2000, p.10).’
And, as discussed above, when the context of the medium changes so does the
interpretation.

To summarise, this essay has explored the different facets of meaning and how signs
and signifieds are related to codes and context. On a basic level, signs can show us
how meanings construct, maintain and negotiate certain social beliefs and attitudes
in a culture. Even though text is a traditional medium, it has to abide to the laws of
aesthetics, layout and design to communicate successful meanings.

Bibliography

Williamson, Judith (1978), Decoding Advertisements; Ideology and Meaning in


Advertising, London, Marion Boyars
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Littlejohn, Stephen W. (1996), Theories of Human Communication (5th Edn),
Wadsworth

Chandler, Daniel (2001), “Semiotics, the basics,”


http://www.aber.ac.uk/media/Documents/S4B/the_book.html - accessed 30th June
2004

Barthes, Roland (1977), Image-Music-Text, London: Fontana

Flew, T (2002), Chapter 1, ‘Digitisation and convergence: The keys to


understanding new media,’ in New Media: An Introduction, Oxford Press, pp. 9 – 29

Thwaites, Tony, Lloyd Davis, Warwick Mules (2002), Introducing Cultural and
Media Studies; a semiotic approach, Palgrave, New York

5. Discuss the potential implications of new media technologies on our understanding


of identity OR immersion in space.

In a “weightless world”, with knowledge being more precious than any other
commodity, the Internet and computer-mediated communication (CMC) have made
extensive information available to people, which they previously had no access to
(Flew, 2002). Internet and CMC allow a user to increase social capital; by widening
and maintaining the social networks.

Michael Kuhn argues that an individual’s self-conception, ‘the individual’s plan of


action toward the self, consists of one’s identities, interests and aversions, goals,
ideologies, and self-evaluations (Littlejohn 1996, p.164).’ That means that identity is
merely one facet of a complex self-image we all carry around. Bourdieu (1991) wrote
of identity, its relation to different capital, and the idea that people occupy positions
in society based on the amount of capital they possess. Social capital can be defined
as the sum of the resources, actual or virtual, available to an individual or a group
through a durable network of relationships based on mutual acquaintance and
recognition. The distribution is unequal, and social capital increases the ability of an
actor to advance her/his interests.

Virtual communities are Internet-based, geographically unrestrained social networks


founded on common interests. They are intentional – joined purposely, by motives –
rather than unintentional – joined by circumstantial, external forces such as politics,
economics, and geography (Cherny, 1999, p.248). Communities create their own
internal language and culture that includes some, and excludes others (Turkle,
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1995). Many people use the Internet to extend an already existing social reality, but
the Internet also allows users to pursue interests more freely, and to develop
alternative identities (Flew, 2002, p.82). CMC allows a person to ‘obscure or re-
create aspects of the self’ and express opinions and feelings more freely (Reid in
Gackenbach, 1998, p.29).

CMC not only spawns new relationships, but also keeps old ones connected. Jones
(1998) points to CMC as an important way for people to juggle an increasingly wide
range of social contacts. It fills in the gaps between in-person meetings, and is
particularly valuable to international relationships across different time zones.
ICQ and MSN Messenger are examples of real-time communication programs that
have augmented the primary technology of email as major tools for CMC-based
relationship maintenance. Websites such as Lavalife, Match and Yahoo-groups
exemplifies how Internet and CMC today presents communities where people can
meet a wide range of individuals as well as maintaining existing networks.

To summarise, identity is related to social capital in the way that the more you
possess, the higher your status is. The internet and CMC are new media that allow
people to widen or maintain social networks without the restraint of ‘real-life’ social
capital, and to join communities based on shared interest and attitudes.

Bibliography:

Bourdieu, P. (1991), Language & Symbolic Power, Cambridge, Polity Press.

Cherny, L. (1999), Conversation and Community: Chat in a Virtual World,


Stanford, CSLI

Littlejohn, Stephen W. (1996), Theories of Human Communication (5th Edn),


Wadsworth

Flew, T. (2002), ‘Virtual Cultures’, in New Media: An Introduction, South


Melbourne, Oxford University Press, pp. 76-95.

Turkle, S. (1995). Life on the Screen: Identity in the age of the Internet, New York,
Simon & Schuster.

Reid, E. (1998), 'The Self and the Internet: Variations of the Illusion of One Self' in
Gackenbach, J. (ed.) (1998) Psychology and the Internet: Intrapersonal,
Interpersonal and Transpersonal Implications, San Diego, Academic Press.
Jon-Eric Melsaeter
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Jones, S. (1998), ‘Information, Internet, and Community: Notes towards an
Understanding of Community in the Information Age’, in Cybersociety 2.0: Revisiting
Computer-Mediated Communication and Community, London, Sage, pp. 1-34.

Note on exam:
I worked on this exam together with Marius Steen, and consequently, as we constructed our essays
similarly, the tone is similar.

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