Conclusions - Digital Stucco: Convergent Media and Social Consensus in the Postmodern Condition
CONCLUSIONS
The global computer networks as communications platforms provide the grounds for a new configuration of the media system in contemporary society. The communicative interactions that take place over these new platforms can be analyzed in terms of the interactions among simple and complex entities in cyberspace as defined in the framework proposed in the present work. Such entities represent the networked individuals of contemporary society and the points where they interconnect amid this decentralized environment, as well as the larger structures of the physical world such as the media corporations. The virtual sphere reflects the conditions of the real world but also has the potential to produce accommodations that can alter them. In this context, the new technologies foster a mode of communication that is radically different to that one that emerged from the inception of the broadcast media. Given the symbiotic relationship between the real and the virtual worlds, the new media age should be defined by the convergence of both modes of communications, rather than solely by the features of the new one. As discussed above, such convergence creates a mutually informing relationship between both modes of communications, with the traditional broadcast media adopting practices that provide a sense of greater interaction with their audiences while some online entities operate in ways similar to those of the traditional outlets.
Analyzing the observations from the case study within the theoretical framework proposed in this work, it is possible to summarize some conclusions. In response to the question of how the convergence of modes of communication reflects the attributes of the postmodern condition, it can be said that convergence contains and resolves to some extent tensions between the decentered environment of the virtual sphere and the linear realization of its multiple possible path at an individual level, and between the multi-layered nature of contemporary social network and the contingency of social decisions. The IMC enables the emergence of a greater variety of points of view in the public arena by empowering individuals with new tools for symbolic production in an image-dominated era: digital stucco allows consumer/producers of the IMC environment to exercise a certain amount of power over texts of the BMC outlets as these texts enter the virtual world in the form of binary code. Digital stucco is a homogenizing substance that stands in for other materials and objects while containing not only the traits of mass production but also those of individual “handcrafting.” And, unlike counterfeit, mass copies or patterns, it has an intrinsic vocation for originality.
The impact of convergence on social debate resides in the fact that it fosters the articulation of discursive positions in the seemingly amorphous world of the digital networks. In such world, along with disconnected ideas there are also points of centralization in which individuals who share similar points of view can come together and form discursive fronts in the IMC environment. In this sense, the discourse of the BMC-dominated media provides a common frame of reference for conversations among individuals from different backgrounds-or different geographical locations-who share a particular interest. In such conditions, the inception of the IMC complicates the critique of concordance because a larger accommodation articulates in the context of the whole media system containing the IMC and the BMC environments (as opposed to the arrangement of positions attained in the traditional media). Therefore an analysis that looks exclusively at the BMC outlets is narrow-focused. This larger accommodation receives the influence of the changing discursive forces that emerge in the IMC environment (and can also impact the discourse of the BMC outlets, as happened during the Seattle events). Thus the notion of rigid accommodations should be substituted for a more fluid perspective.
The four different instances analyzed in the case study contain features of both modes of communications in varying degrees, illustrating their interconnection as a consequence of media convergence-although it is possible to identify in each of those instances the prevalence of one mode of communication over the other. This is particularly evident in this study because it focused on forms of communications that have an intrinsic orientation towards mass communication. For instance, even in the message boards, the intention of the writers is the diffusion of their particular points of view. The Interactive Mode of Communications allows them to share these texts without having to clear the obstacles of the gatekeeping function inherent to the Broadcast Mode of Communication. This condition provides opportunities for a wider variety of points of view to be reflected in IMC environments than in BMC environments. As technological developments have configured worldwide digital networks, they have also made a number of publishing tools more accessible to the common computer user, and the trend seems to indicate that those will continue to become less expensive and more accessible in price and facility of use over time. The induction of objects and processes into the digital realm has impacted the symbolic production in a society to which it is central. In this sense the metaphor of digital stucco employed in the present work underlines the projection of the individual producer/consumer into a public sphere where his/her own symbolic creations coexist in the same digital plane with the mass communication products that they try to emulate.
Technological innovation has shaped decentralized network environments that foster social and communicative practices typical of contemporary capitalist society. Central to the present analysis is the fragmentation of issues and alliances that characterize the current social condition. The Interactive Mode of Communication carries the potential to provide more complexity to public debates by bringing forward points of view that would otherwise be ignored by traditional media practices. As it was observed in the case study, the individual facing the convergent modes of communications is able to explore a variety of points of view with regard to a particular topic, contrasting the mainstream positions reflected in the traditional media with the alternatives that emerge in the online environment.
The convergence does not automatically give widespread attention to the viewpoints expressed in a debate. The forces that emerge in the IMC environment have to rely on its hypertextual nature to be noticed and become part of the debate. Logically that attracts people with similar ideas and the positions are conformed by accumulation. Such positions could acquire prominence in the discourse of the mainstream media, thus providing a more complex reflection of the debate. However, the potential of the IMC cannot be confined to its possibilities as a gateway to the traditional media, particularly in a social situation characterized by micropolitics and the conformation of local and issue-oriented alliances. Under these conditions, the IMC allows the articulation of positions amid the amorphous environment of the networked world. As those positions are formed, in the context of the convergent media the discourse of the BMC outlets ceases to enjoy absolute dominance and becomes a point of reference. The users of the IMC environment can then agree or dissent, highlight or ignore. And the output of the traditional media, which is intended to be a finished product, can be altered and transformed into new texts with different perspectives. In consequence, the balance of forces represented in the BMC-dominant mainstream media does not provide a complete measure of the accommodation attained in a particular debate. While the concordance reached in the discourse of the traditional media could be analyzed as concluded and definitive, this work proposes the idea that in the media system where the new and old media converge, accommodations can be examined as variable stages, reflecting the shifting nature of the social networks in contemporary capitalist systems and the new conditions of symbolic production. This viewpoint manifests the opposition between the analysis based on a BMC-centric position (from the perspective of the finished, immutable text of modernity) and the analysis inspired by the metaphor of digital stucco.
The notions presented in this work have been illustrated through observations from the case study. The particularities of the globalization debate and the circumstances surrounding the G8 Summit color this analysis. Furthermore, the characteristics of the interrelationship between IMC and BMC may vary in the future due to technological developments or to changes in the corporate panorama of the mainstream media. In fact, this project started to take shape in a different direction before the end of the so-called Internet bubble and at the moment it was focused on a network program that had incorporated interactive features into its linear discourse. After the interest in that kind of program failed amidst the general disillusionment with the dot-com business, the show was canceled-and the focus of the project changed. The initial focus was on instances in which both modes of communication were available simultaneously, such as a television program with a parallel chatroom-which allowed for the inclusion of elements from each environment into the discourse of the other. After the dot-com crash there was a reversal of the trend that generated that kind of television program, and the orientation towards the IMC in the mainstream broadcast media was again confined to instances more closely related to the traditional feedback of the BMC. However, the convergence of modes of communication takes place also at a large scale in the context of the whole media system. Consequently, this project adopted a wider perspective, looking at communications over different media platforms. The new media age provide a dynamic environment, and even as some opportunities for social debate fade away, others emerge-for instance, the blog movement. Therefore the ideas developed in the present study are offered as possible starting points for further analysis of the issues of media convergence and its consequences in journalism and social concordance.
