Convergence and Consolidation in Journalism

Since the exposure of the Internet there have been many technological advances. One in particular, is the ability to relay news straight to your home computer without the burden of waiting to see the news reported on television. Another capability Internet media has provided is the ability to be selective of the news you want to read. For example if you are watching Fox news, you have to observe all the reports in the order that they choose to broadcast it, regardless of your preference. With the Internet it works like the newspaper however, the newspaper is not immediately updated or as quickly updated as the Internet can be. This is another very huge advancement in media journalism. The ability to relay the news as soon as possible once as it has been verified as legitimate to the people is one of the largest benefits to on line journalism. Which brings me to convergence journalism. It is simply the most common reference for on line news, multimedia journalism, digital news, etc. In other words, when broken down into simplified terms it is referred to as electronic content delivery.
A classic example of convergence in todays media was the merger of AOL and Time Warner. Being a content company, Time warner merging with an on line delivery company such as AOL, not only provided as a perfect example of convergence, but they became one of the largest media conglomerates in the world. This however, began to create some confusion for they had such a vast amount of success, many other companies began to converge creating what is now known as media consolidation. The term media consolidation refers to the majority of these media outlets being owned by a small number of corporation i.e. Time Warner solely linked with AOL. Media consolidation helps to characterize ownership structure of these major media industries and has become one of the more widespread approaches to on line media today.