Convergence crosscurrents: Analog in the digital and digital in the analog

Abstract

In this Perspective paper we propose a rethink on how we should approach digital and analog news. Although there are literatures that continue to focus on the many and varied characteristics of digital and analog news, we should not consider these as separate, opposing entities. In fact, the intertwining between the digital and the analog of news makes it difficult, if not impossible, to define separately what they are, even if this often is the practice in scholarly debate on news and journalism in new media. What we argue in this paper is that today, in opposition to binary definitions, it would be much more revealing, and also connected to actual media practices, to try to understand how much digital there is in the analog news and, vice versa, how much analog there is in digital news. This approach recognizes three dimensions in media platforms: digital, analog, and, between them, a cross-evolved, digitalized analog present in television, radio, and online newspapers. Recognizing these three dimensions enables us to explore more clearly the implications that the hybridization of digital and analog news has on the overall media system and on the state of news itself.

Keywords:

• analog
• convergence
• digital
• Facebook
• hybridization
• print newspapers
• television
• Twitter

Notes

1 See Page One: Inside the New York Times, available on YouTube, Amazon Prime Video, and other streaming services.