Why “Convergence” Matters to Sports
People read books, or at least they used to. They watch television. They listen to music. They play games.
But what do people do with smartphones? Or a computer?
At the heart of this seemingly simple question is the concept of “convergence,” a term that addresses the transition from so-called “old” media to “new,” and the evolving expectations that fans have for engaging with each other and the world.
Made most popular by media scholar Henry Jenkins in his 2006 book Convergence Culture: where old and new media collide, Convergence is a term that rose quickly in popularity in media academic circles, only to fade away as fleeting attention spans looked for the next buzzword to latch on to. Meanwhile, the concept of Convergence is particularly useful for addressing the rising anxiety and struggle in the sports industry, what we at Sports Innovation Lab refer to as the Age of the Fluid Fan.
So, what is Convergence?
Convergence, according to Jenkins, assumes three principles as a basis:
Media convergence: this concept is most easily exemplified by the smartphone. Media convergence is the idea that new media forms allow for more behaviors, more verbs, than just one. When we used to just “watch” or “read” or “listen” now, with new media forms and affordances, we can do so much more, and all at once. Fans float seamlessly between watching a game, sharing a highlight, creating and posting a meme, buying a kit, and so on. We call all of these actions behaviors, and Convergence empowers fans to enact more behaviors, more easily.
Participatory culture: this concept addresses how communities of fans have been on a long trajectory of transitioning from mere consumers to active producers of content. The expectation of participatory culture is that fans are empowered to create and contribute to the production of fandom. Axel Bruns called this shift “produsage” and it is a foundational expectation of Fluid Fans. Fans want to be able to be a part of the production of “sports” in the grandest sense, sharing highlights, providing analysis, creating their own commentary over live game action, generating memes, and sharing it all with their community.
Collective intelligence: this concept may be the most tricky, because it is the most philosophical, but when Jenkins refers to collective intelligence, he is drawing on French cybertheorist Pierre Levy. Jenkins writes “None of us can know everything; each of us knows something; and we can put the pieces together if we pool our resources and combine our skills. Collective intelligence can be seen as an alternative source of media power. We are learning how to use that power through our day-to-day interactions within convergence culture.”
Wow, this is super cool. But I’m a business person, why should I care?
While it would be easy to dismiss convergence as a theoretical concept that is ideal for whimsical philosophizing, in fact, we make a compelling argument that many of the failures of modern sports media are because of the failure to reorganize our business to adequately address the increased expectation for convergence culture from sports fans. In our latest report, cheekily titled The Future of Watching Sports we outline how sports media, for the last half-century at least, has largely ignored convergence because the powerful revenue-driving status quo of advertising and sponsorship dollars have simply lead to more focus on the mass communication of old: broadcast. Fans are simply offered more sports to watch, and now on smaller screens in their pockets. Meanwhile, fans want to do more.
The future of sports media is dependent on convergence. Every day, companies like LiveLike, Epic Games, Promethean, Formula E, Brizi, Intel, Unreal, Bobble Sports, Cisco, DraftKings, Twitch, and many others are innovating on media experiences that address the demand for more behaviors from sports fans—behaviors like share, bet, compete, buy, talk smack, and so on. But the industry as a whole is lagging behind, because it is still too dependent on selling an ad-spot because of the size of an audience.
Well, surprise, your audience was probably in the kitchen or the bathroom during the ad break anyway, and even if they weren’t it’s likely they were on the phone at that time in another app tweeting, buying something, or doing any of the other behaviors they wish they could be doing while they watch sports. The advertisers are figuring this out, so why wait to prepare the next monetizable sponsor solution that actually empowers your fans ability to do more?
Dig Deeper
Jenkins, H. (2006). Convergence Culture Where Old and New Media Collide. New York, NY: NYU Press.