Convergence, Participatory Culture, Collective Intelligence: A Study of New News Media

Internet one can be used to watch Television, view Films, listen to music, read books, read newspaper, write blogs, access Facebook, twitter etc. Devices such as the smart phones facilitate media consumption on a hand held device even while on the move. All this is possible as a result of convergence. Media convergence impacts the way we use media. It
involves both a change in the way media is produced and a change in the way media is consumed(Jenkins:2006). Convergence alters the logic by which media industries operate and by which media consumers process news and entertainment. Keeping this in mind convergence refers to a process not an end point. The new news media websites are produced and consumed in a variety of ways. Some of these sites are run as newspapers; whereas some follow the citizen-journalism method. Some are run and operated by a group involved in a particular issue or event. While new media are clearly not solely responsible for the generation of
counter-public spheres, through contributing to the destabilization of the public sphere and the generation of new forms of fragmentation and solidarity, they are central to this process that presents both opportunities and dangers to the theory and practice of democracy (Downey & Fenton: 2003). News online is provided by media conglomerates; who have their presence across various media platforms. News websites are also created and run by various associations, citizen groups, NGOS, activists etc. The delivery system are technologies, but the media are cultural systems. The media persists as layers within an even more complicated information and communication stratum. This paper will analyse new news media sites for various journalistic potentialities like interactivity, hypertextuality, multimediality, immediacy, ubiquity, memory, personalization, creativity, hypermediality, contextualization. The framework proposed by Zamith(2008) will be used to understand the various potentialities. This will also help the researchers to draw conclusions with respect to collective intelligence and participatory culture and how they help in the production of news and also in the consumption of news. The rationale for convergence and the partnerships that the sites have entered for generating content will also be examined. This will provide case studies in order to understand the dynamics of new news media.