digital convergence

Since the late 20th century, many forms of communication and information storage have been transformed from ana-log to digital representations (see analog and digital). For example, the phonograph record (an electromechani-cal analog format) gave way during the 1980s to a wholly digital format (see cd-rom). Video, too, is now increasingly being stored in digital form (DVD or laser disks) rather than in the analog form of videotape. Voice telephony, which originally involved the conversion of sound to analogous electrical signals, is increasingly being digitized (as with many cell phones) and transmitted in packet form over the communications network.

The concept of digital convergence is an attempt to explore the implications of so many formerly disparate ana-log media now being available in digital form. All forms of digital media have key features in common. First, they are essentially pure information (computer data). This means that regardless of whether the data originally represented still images from a camera, video, or film, the sound of a human voice, music, or some other form of expression, that data can be stored, manipulated, and retrieved under the control of computer algorithms. This makes it easier to create seamless multimedia presentations (see multime-dia and hypertext and hypermedia). Services or products previously considered to be separate can be combined in new ways. For example, many radio stations now provide their programming in the form of “streaming audio” that can be played by such utilities as RealPlayer or Microsoft Windows Media Player (see streaming). Similarly, televi-sion news services such as CNN can offer selected excerpts of their coverage in the form of streaming video files. As more users gain access to broadband Internet connections (such as cable or DSL), it is gradually becoming feasible to deliver TV programs and even full-length feature films in digital format. By the middle of the decade, media deliv-ery began to proliferate on new platforms that represent a further convergence of function. Many “smart phones” can play audio and video (see smartphone). In July 2007 Apple’s iPhone entered the market, combining phone, media player, and Web browsing functions, and similar devices will no doubt follow (see also pda).

Emerging Issues

The merging of traditional media into a growing stream of digital content has created a number of difficult legal and social issues. Digital images or sounds from various sources can easily be combined, filtered, edited, or other-wise altered for a variety of purposes. As a result, the value of photographs as evidence may be gradually compromised.

The ownership and control of the intellectual property rep-resented by music, video, and film has also been compli-cated by the combination of digitization and the pervasive Internet. For example, during 2000–2001 the legal battles involving Napster, a program that allows users to share music files pitted the rights of music producers and artists to control the distribution of their product against the tech-nological capability of users to freely copy and distribute the material. While a variety of copy protection systems (both software and hardware-based) have been developed in an attempt to prevent unauthorized copying, histori-cally such measures have had only limited effectiveness (see copy protection, digital rights management, and intellectual property and computing).

Digital convergence also raises deeper philosophical issues. Musicians, artists, and scholars have frequently sug-gested that the process of digitization fails to capture subtle-ties of performance that might have been accessible in the original media. At the same time, the richness and immer-sive qualities of the new multimedia may be drawing people further away from the direct experience of the “real” analog world around them. Ultimately, the embodiment of digital convergence in the form of virtual reality likely to emerge in the early 21st century will pose questions as profound as those provoked by the invention of printing and the devel-opment of mass broadcast media (see virtual reality).