By convergence, I mean the flow of content across multiple media platforms, the cooperation between multiple media industries, and the migratory behaviour of media audiences – (Jenkins 2006)
In today’s technology focused world, convergence plays a very important part. It allows us to connect more efficiently between media platforms and technology. Throughout the in depth of study of convergence, it has become evident that convergence greatly affects to the relationship between media technologies and audiences. Technology and its devices are becoming increasingly intelligent and clever everyday, and this is because we as humans are doing the same, which can be linked to the rise to the concept of prosumption.
Convergence
The relationship between technology and it’s audience is as strong as it’s ever been at the present time, with us as humans constantly surrounding ourselves with it and being so dependant of it. With this growth in convergence, and the clear shift in technology, some concepts and concerns have been raised. This includes the concept of ownership, and copyright issues that so often emerge in the technology world because of the rapidly growing flow of information through channels and platforms.
Introduction to Tinder
The phone application called Tinder uses this theory of convergence. Tinder was created in September 2012, to originally increase social interaction between students at a University in Southern California (Empson 2013). The application uses it’s audience’s Facebook profiles to collect information such as age and the user’s photos to create a type of online dating profile. The application then uses the user’s GSP device in the phone to track other Tinder users located in a certain range to match.
Prosumers
As mentioned before, another concept that has arisen because of convergence is “prosumers”, which plays an important part in the relationship between technologies and their audiences. This concept