Changing media and changing laws

It’s an understatement to say that New media is always finding new ways to change. This is because there is a trend of convergence in the media. This means that many forms of mass media, computers or telecommunications are starting to merge together to dominate new media. This kind of merging introduces us to new kinds of communication. Being born in 1992, I was exposed to analog communication as well as digital communication, and as I got older it was easier to see the convergence happening around me. Slowly but surely the original ways of communicating were being phased out by newer ways. As child I had CD’s, a boom box and used a land line, and now I have upgraded to an iPod and my own cell phone. Being born when I was allowed me to see the digital divide between those who can afford it and those who can’t. My life has become mediated through different channels of media. I keep in touch with old friends in different colleges through social media like Facebook or I read their blog to stay in the loop about their lives. Convergence has caused new media to be much more interactive, which is probably why merging everything seems more appealing.

Back in the days of Bill Clinton’s presidency, the Telecommunications Act of 1996 was passed before congress. In this piece of legislation, Congress stripped away the regulations that protected publishing, broadcasting, cable and satellite television and other media companies so that they wouldn’t have to compete with each other. The hope of passing this legislation was to reduce prices of communications, improve the services of these companies and spark some competition between them. In hindsight, this did not sound like such a bad idea. What would be better than having cheaper communications services? Unfortunately, things did not go in this direction. More companies either merged together, were bought out or declared bankruptcy, and this outpaced the consumer benefits. It just goes to show that reducing the regulations does not work in this field, particularly since the field of new media is highly based around competition.