Henry Jenkins - A Detractor of the Black Box Theory of Convergence

A review of Henry Jenkins' (2006) official weblog reveals some interesting perspectives and forecasts regarding convergence. He discusses the plausibility of the notion that one day all media technologies will converge into a single technological device. He is a clear detractor of this proposition deeming it as mere predictive conjecture which he labels as the “black box fallacy”. For Jenkins (2006), convergence is understood as an ongoing process rather than an endpoint. Therefore, he argues that it will be quite sometime before a stable relationship between media technologies is established. He believes that the media can no longer be regarded as “discrete and self-contained” and "if we are waiting for all of the media technologies to merge into a single media appliance, we will be waiting for a very very long time" (Jenkins 2006).

His sceptical stance is primarily informed by his scholarly background in communications, journalism and cinematic art. His central argument is that convergence is more than just technological in form. He regards this perception as narrow which serves to downplay the real extent and impact of convergence on human societies in the twenty-first century. Jenkins (2006) sees convergence as a cultural process "which involves the flow of stories, images, sounds, brands, relationships across the entire media system". He observes that today's media landscape has given birth to a convergence culture where media can be found almost everywhere. Furthermore, he believes that the current media landscape and patterns of consumption do not support the idea of a black box or a “one size fits all” approach.

His observations include:

(1) Divergence and convergence are occurring simultaneously both in the minds and behavior of consumers and within the media system itself.

(2) Media systems are already interconnected, regardless of whether technologies are hardwired together

Check out Jenkins' weblog! Do the observations made by Jenkins correlate with your personal consumption of media content and technology?

Source: Jenkins, H. (2006), ‘Confession of an Aca-Fan: Official Weblog of Henry Jenkins’, weblog, accessed 5^th September 2010, http://www.henryjenkins.org/2006/06/convergence_and_divergence_two.html