Forms of Media Convergence and Multimedia Content – A Romanian Perspective

Abstract

Dra. Georgeta Drulă es Profesora Asociada en la Facultad de Periodismo y Comunicación de la Universidad de Bucarest (Rumanía) (gdrula@yahoo.com). RESUMENEste artículo se centra en dos tipos de convergencia tecnológica de medios: la basada en tecnología móvil, y la convergencia basada en la unificación de las tecnologías de la información y la industria mediática. Estas formas están influidas por los aspectos multimedia del contenido. El interés de la investigación de este estudio se centra en el panorama mediático en Rumanía y en su estado actual. Aunque muchos académicos y profesionales evalúan la convergencia de medios por el contenido desde una perspectiva periodística, existen otros muchos aspectos y tendencias a tener en cuenta. Así, la convergencia de medios en términos de contenido puede ser interpretada junto al contenido del usuario y considera la unificación del contenido pagado, poseído, compartido y adquirido. Este artículo propone una perspectiva teórica y práctica para la relación entre convergencia y multimedia en cuanto a los productos mediáticos on-line. Esta perspectiva se refiere a los productores y a los consumidores de la información. El interés del artículo reside en tanto que identifica los retos de la industria mediática y establece enfoques acerca de la convergencia multimedia para los productos mediáticos. La metodología consiste en el análisis de contenido y en el agrupamiento jerárquico con el objetivo de descubrir diferentes formas de convergencia de medios on-line. La conclusión establece que, gracias a varias tecnologías y sus asociaciones, la convergencia puede dirigirse desde el usuario a la industria y viceversa. ABSTRACTThis paper addresses two types of technological media convergence: media convergence based on mobile technology, and also convergence based on the unification between IT and media industry. These forms are influenced by the multimedia aspects of the content. The research interest in this study is related to media landscape in Romania and its state. Even if many academics and practitioners consider media convergence only at the content level from journalistic perspective, this topic has many more detail aspects and trends. Thus, media convergence in terms of content can be now interpreted together with the user's content and takes into consideration the unification between paid, owned, shared and earned content. This paper proposes a theoretical and practical perspective for the relationship between convergence and multimedia for online media products. This perspective belongs both to media producers and to online consumers of information. The paper is interesting in that it reveals the challenges facing the media industries, and shows approaches of convergence that are related to multimedia for media products. The methodological framework uses the content analysis and the hierarchical cluster analysis to discover different forms of convergence in online media. The main conclusion of this study shows that due to various technologies and their partnerships, converg...

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