Global Values in Media 395bility of inter-activity or inter-action. It means that the receiver starts to
develop the ability to become an issuer and to relate her/himself more
closely to issuers. One of the strong senses of these times, thus, is partic-
ipation. Two elements mark this sociocultural and economic process:
computers (and more particularly the internet) and mobile phones.
The idea of convergence appears to explain this dynamic: the large-
scale viability of these technologies in a single terminal to access multi-
ple networks and services. In other words, different functions and com-
munication mechanisms engaged / inserted (convergent) on one ma-
chine, made possible by digital technology. This convergence allowed
the expansion of the capacity of the media: there is a meeting between
the precursor analog media and the digital media, producing intercon-
nections and generating new products and means of obtaining infor-
mation.
For participation to become effective, the tools that facilitate the ac-
tion of users-issuers emerge—blogs, podcasts, wikis, discussion forums,
social software. They do not work for the centralization of information,
they are not necessarily linked to communications companies, not lim-
ited to send information only, they are not necessarily linked to advertis-
ing and marketing, they are not state grants and are not limited to geo-
graphical coverage needs. This culture of participation that promote
convergent media transforms the communication processes with the
possibility of expanded access to different ideas and opinions and recre-
ation of messages.
It was the researcher Henry Jenkins^298 , who paid attention to this
contemporary context and coined the term "convergence culture" to crit-
icize the concentration of attention on "media convergence". He calls for
what he considers important in this phenomenon, which do not only
concern to industrial processing technologies, but refers to culture, how
298
JENKINS, Henry, Convergence Culture: Where Old and New Media Collide.
New York/London: New York University Press, 2006