Media Noise

Our senses are assaulted each day by advertisements trying to catch our attention. We have radio, TV, music devices, and visual ads. On top of that we have news and information we may actually be interested in.

The assault by media is converging on us. Try to buy a cell phone that just makes phone calls. It has to text, play tunes, games, take pictures and video, in color no less. Do we really need all that? Probably not. But it seems that consumers are demanding more media convergence. We want the Dick Tracy watch that connects us to the internet. Jenkins, in the intro to the book, “Worship at the Altar of Convergence” says: “Convergence involves both a change in the way media is produced, and a change in the way media is consumed” p,16).

Media used to present itself to consumers in whichever way it wanted to. But in today’s world, consumers are driving the direction by what they are using, and don’t use (Jenkins, p3). On top of that is the corporate drive for profit; give the consumers what they are demanding (Jenkins, p 8).

I find it distracting and irritating to have a cluttered TV screen. There’s the main scene, the station identifier, a scrolling text line at the bottom, and sometimes more, especially on a news broadcast.

Maybe in a media environment where everyone is a content producer, it becomes necessary to “shout” louder to be heard; make it bigger, brighter, faster, throw in more content.

I think the media producers don’t really know what people want so they are throwing everything at us, and something will stick. I don’t think consumers know what they want either, and are trying everything thrown at them. Eventually though, I’m sure it will settle out. All this convergence afterall, is an evolutionary process (Jenkins, p16).

We have created a culture of multitasking individuals. How many people do you IM at the same time? You can talk on the phone and still work on your computer; drive and talk on the phone. I don’t think it useful or healthy for us to have our attention so scattered. We merely raise our stress levels, and I would think we are actually reducing our productivity.

By having so much media convergence we are spending less “quality time” with each medium. In his book, The Medium is the Massage, Marshall Mcluhan pointed out…each type of media appeals to, or “massages” different senses. We are apparently aiming for a multimedia, multisensory ultimate experience. I don’t think we are succeeding. As for me, I still like to curl up in a comfy chair with the Sunday paper, and waste away the day…

References:

Jenkins, H. (2006). Introduction: “Worship at the altar of convergence” (pp 1-24). Convergence Culture. New York: NYU Press.

McLuhan, M. The Medium is the Massage, 1967, Bantam Books, inc., US, Canada.