The effects of convergence are personal, political, and economical. Your essay must critically discuss this claim and incorporate the work of Meikle and Young (chapter 3), McChesney, and Manovich.

The effects of convergence are personal, political, and economical. Your essay must critically discuss this claim and incorporate the work of Meikle and Young (chapter 3), McChesney, and Manovich.

Introduction

Media convergence has diminished the lines between public communication and one-on-one communication (p.59). This convergence has brought about different effects on media users. Platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube have revolutionized how human beings interact with each other. Facebook feeds, for example, provides a dynamic experience by mixing “personal ephemera,” news, photos, and communication links (p.59. This content comes from people who we know offline and those that we don’t. Therefore, this paper will critically analyze the effects of convergence with specific reference to personal, political, and economic impact.

Media convergence has brought about personal effects related to privacy and reputation to media users.

The diversified forms of media, social media, for example, have raised issues of personal information privacy and reputations. Social media networks have created tension between broadcast and personal communication. Categorically, between messages intended for another person and whoever comes across them (p.68).  For example, a Facebook post by John meant for Jake will be sent to Jake, but it is subject to public display for anyone who might across it.

The issue of personal effects also extends to the privacy of our friends’ contact list on social media platforms. The major flaw in this is that social media, as a convergent media, allows users to traverse personal connections in the system (p.60). This scenario means that personal interactions are exposed and become more visible to other users. For example, Facebook allows users to traverse their own “friends” list. This practice might compromise another person’s data and the need for privacy.

Media convergence has also brought about economic effects in the media industry. The convergence brought adverse financial impact to the developers and investors.

The first social media network, Friends Reunited, captured full attention in the United Kingdom. With 15 million users in 2005, broadcaster ITV bought it as 120 million. The service decline led to a reduction in value to 25 million, with the company incurring a loss of 95 million. This devaluation is a consequence of the innovativeness of Facebook with free access as opposed to Friends Reunited’s charges to access the services.  Additionally, the first dot.com bubble burst saw the fall of NASDAQ technology with the consequent rise of new internet firms (p.65). This devaluation in brands and resulting collapse are economic effects of media convergence.

Media convergence has also brought political effects. The political issue is that social media platforms acquire and own personal information while users are creating value by using these platforms without paying the information providers.

For example, Facebook’s database contains personal information of millions of users, including their contacts, photos, videos, and networks (p.67), but Facebook owns the data. This reality brought public tension in 2010 with assumptions that Facebook users are its customers and should be accorded respect they deserve. Ideally, the users are  Facebook’s products and not customers (p.67). Additionally, Facebook commercial operations involve advertising ad partnerships with the main business being selling uses of its database made of personal information and daily lives of millions of users (p.67) who don’t get a share for this.

Conclusion

Media convergence has brought personal, economic, and political effects. Personal effects relate to the lack of privacy of personal information and networks. Economic effects relate to the devaluation of previously renowned brands due to emergent innovation trends in social media.  Political implications relate to the sale of the Facebook database containing personal information of millions of users without giving credit. Therefore, while media convergence has been beneficial in blending multiple platforms into one, it has different adverse effects, as analyzed above.