Technological convergence and Mediamorphosis

One of the ways of thinking about the changes in media today is by thinking of convergence and technological convergence seems to be the most popular of them all (others includes; Professional, Cultural and Institutional).
New media technologies are able to provide the user with various features in a smaller amount space. Iphones for example can download files from the Internet, take very clear pictures, record videos, play music/ videos and connect to other gadgets via Bluetooth. It’s amazing what one can do with just one device.
It has become very uncomfortable now to carry around a stereo (no matter how small it might be) to listen to the news or the weekly top ten songs, while at the same time tucking a newspaper under your arm while on your way to the cyber cafe. Preferably just buy a mobile phone that is digitally and media compliant to perform all those news media functions. Roger Fidler, an ex-journalist and newspaper designer who has become an authority on online and digital publishing development described that kind of technological convergence as mediamorphosis.

Since the early 1990s, communication sages have been
predicting that in the next decade so-called information
super-highway networks will routinely bring an ever
expanding universe of interactive information, entertainment,
shopping and personal services to nearly everyone through
some form of what futurist George Gilder has called a
teleputer- a new device that would blend attributes of
television and telephony with a personal computer
(Fidler, 1997, p.6).

However, there is a lot of work that needs to be done on these new media technologies. For one, the almighty Iphone has major pitfalls of its own that disrupts easy communication. One of the most recent complains are poor signals (a major requirement for the phone) and the screen’s insensitivity to touch after a period of time.

References:

*Fiddler, R. (1997) Mediamorphosis: Understanding New Media. Pine Forge Press

*Truman Lewis (2008): Signal Problems Plague iPhone 3G . Available at http://www.consumeraffairs.com/news04/2008/08/iphone_chipset.html (Accessed on October 2009)


*CBS (2007): A Closer Look At The iPhone Available at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YgW7or1TuFk (Accessed October 2009)