Convergence Culture

I started out thinking of doing this exploration on internet TV. It has been an interesting journey which has lead into the convergence culture. MIT has a Convergence Culture Consortium (C3) that explores the ways the business landscape is changing in response to the growing integration of content and brands across media platforms and the increasingly prominent roles that consumers are playing in shaping the flow of media.
You can access their weblog where it discusses current topics such as: Encouraged by the success of Heroes 360, an expansive transmedia campaign to enable viewer interaction with Heroes (via an "interactive" graphic novel, an ARGesque campaign, and so on), NBC is expanding their 360-approach to television to another of their biggest hits... The Office.
In addition to making extra content available on digital platforms, "The Office 360" will allow online users of NBC's Web site to create their own branches of the comedy's fictional Dunder-Mifflin paper company with different challenges to complete. The branches could be integrated into a network episode of the show.
And
The show Bones was launching a particularly interesting storyline and running a series of ads that this week's mystery would provide viewers the chance to begin solving the case before the show ever aired. The primary characters involved in this particular case would have their own MySpace pages that would contain some relative information and which would allow viewers the chance to start investigating the case prior to the show's beginning.
Society is becoming very internet savvy and we are sophisticated. We are now bored with just static websites. If you have a clever video you can have your five minutes of fame. Youtube.com is a good example of that.
Another new video-sharing site, LiveLeak, based in London, has positioned itself as a source for reality-based fare like footage of Iraq battle scenes and grisly accidents. Last week, popular clips on the site included one of an agitated man in Muslim dress on a fast-moving treadmill and video of an American A-20 aircraft bombing Taliban forces in Afghanistan.
The possibilities for success are greater today with the media platforms available today. Reality TV shows have helped to foster appreciation for the common man not just big screen movie stars.
I know a race car driver who started a little podcast on his website. http://www.ronnava.com/ It became so popular he now has major sponsors and has become heavily involved with the ASA.