Journal Description
Convergence aims to encourage and advance interdisciplinary modes of enquiry into the study of the histories, trajectories, impacts, practices, pleasures and creative potential of contemporary convergent media & allied innovative technologies.
Convergence is an international peer-reviewed academic journal which was set up in 1995 to address the creative, social, political and pedagogical issues raised by the advent of new media technologies. As an international research journal, it provides a forum both for monitoring and exploring developments in the field and for encouraging, publishing and promoting vital innovative research. Adopting an inter-disciplinary approach and published six times a year, Convergence has developed this area into an entirely new research field.
Topics include:
- Convergent media: histories, cross-cultural/international contexts, emergent products
- Digital creative production (music, television, art, photography, cinema, kinetic media)
- Games, gaming and ludic technologies
- Digital media distribution
- Mobile media/content
- Extended Realities (XR) – Virtual Reality, Augmented Reality and Mixed Reality
- Local and Global Media Regulation and Infrastructure (e.g. Intellectual Property (IP), censorship, policy, platforms)
- Diversity, Inclusion and representational politics
- New techno-subjects of the anthropocene – Algorithmic, Artificial Intelligence, Artificial Life
- Democratisation of the digital economy: co-production, open access and block chain and cryptocurrency
- Distributed data, networked subjects and vulnerable publics
Access all issues of Convergence on SAGE Journals Online.
Journal Feed
- by Martina Skrubbeltrang MahnkeConvergence, Ahead of Print. Ongoing societal datafication and, most recently, the widely noticed launch of ChatGPT, continue to raise the “user question”: what role(s) does the user play in datafied, artificial, and automated environments? Recent technological advancements have begun to challenge fundamental assumptions in media and communication theory and, thus, urge scholars to (re-)visit and (re-)examine the interrelations, dynamics, and entanglements of (human) users with datafied environments. Two rapidly expanding but still largely distinct bodies of research are addressing these topics: critical data and platform studies, primarily focusing on structural approaches, and user-centered perspectives anchored in the tradition of audience […]
- by Ri Pierce-GroveConvergence, Ahead of Print. In this paper, we present a transnational case study on binge-watching and media habits. The contributions of this paper are two-fold. The first contribution is methodological, proposing ‘data-prompted interviewing’, a variant of trace interviewing. Participants’ own trace data is used to help them recall their own behavior in more detail, which in turn enables them to identify gaps or flaws in trace data records. This case study, which includes sixty interviews in platform logs from YouTube, Netflix and a large self-tracking service, provides evidence that ‘data-prompted interviewing’ yields robust results. Using data to prompt interviewees’ memories […]
- by Hannah DitchfieldConvergence, Ahead of Print. This paper explores how non-experts reflect on and come to understand ‘data uses’, a phrase we used to refer to data collection, analysis and sharing. In recent years, research into what people think and feel about data uses has proliferated, whereas this paper focuses on how they do their thinking and feeling. We argue that imagining – that is, building or creating a mental image of something that is not present – is an important aspect of reflecting on data uses. We challenge the proposition that imagining takes place when there is a gap in knowledge […]
- by Ying HuangConvergence, Ahead of Print. Using the concepts of data reflectivity and user reflexivity, this paper explores the intricate interplay between human users and algorithms through the lens of domestication. Through the metaphor of yanghao on the Chinese digital platform Xiaohongshu (RED), this paper posits that three failure types relating to data reflectivity result in dissatisfaction with RED’s algorithmic outputs and a perceived loss of control over algorithmic identity. In response, users reflexively feed six specific types of data into the algorithm to shape its understanding of themselves. Ultimately, by strategically curating data and interacting with an algorithm, yanghao demonstrates a […]
- by Tingting HuConvergence, Ahead of Print. The censorship of Boys’ Love (BL) content in mainland China is marked by inconsistencies in both its intensity and scope. Amid these shifting regulatory boundaries, this study analyzes the systematic removal and occasional reappearance of visual BL content from the public sphere. We found that as visual channels are most susceptible to suppression, audio – though still monitored – emerges as a crucial medium, leveraging the agentive power of sound and media remediation to sustain fan engagement with BL narratives. Focusing on Miss Evan, a Chinese audio streaming platform, we explore how it navigates state censorship […]
- by Gitte BallingConvergence, Ahead of Print. During the COVID-19 pandemic, TikTok quickly became an important source for connection and entertainment, as people made creative videos and participated in TikTok challenges. The app’s affordances contributed to the emergence of sub-communities, including BookTok, which connected readers across a sociotechnical landscape, and launched backlist titles onto best-seller lists. Using interviews with publishers and booksellers in Denmark and the United States, observations of booksellers’ in-store BookTok displays, and analysis of content created by publishers and online influencers on BookTok, this study examines how BookTok disrupts Darnton’s (1982) Communications Circuit and its subsequent revisions. It explores the […]
- by Martina Skrubbeltrang MahnkeConvergence, Ahead of Print. Following the widely noticed launch of ChatGPT 3.5 in November 2022, an unprecedented number of users have started to experiment with generative AI for communication purposes. Prior studies have shown how users are commodified by platforms, and the unprecedented development of generative AI raises hence once again questions of platform dynamics vs user agency. In this study, we argue that platformized generative AI (GenAI) actively ‘talks back’ to their users, prompting them to act accordingly. Theoretically, we develop the concept of data reflectivity as a critical lens, showing that users exhibit reflective practices. These allow them […]
- by Mohamed Ben MoussaConvergence, Ahead of Print. Netflix has significantly reshaped the global production, distribution, and consumption of audiovisual content. While Netflix claims its algorithm-driven platform provides superior services and limitless choices, it raises concerns about human agency, autonomy, and data justice. These concerns are especially pressing in the Global South, where predatory data extraction practices are prevalent. Research on this issue faces challenges, including a dichotomy between algorithmic power and human agency, limited exploration of user perspectives, and a lack of studies in non-Western contexts. This paper addresses these gaps using a socio-constructivist lens, centering users’ experiences in understanding algorithms as sociotechnical […]
- by Jiannan ShiConvergence, Ahead of Print. Popular social media platforms in China, such as Bilibili, Douyin, and Xiaohongshu (REDnote), use machine learning algorithms to curate personalized feeds and enforce content moderation. But the opacity of such algorithms introduces socially consequential and often problematic mechanisms of classification. Given the playful resistance of queer individuals against a normative social environment, the interaction between algorithms and content creators warrants close examination. This study investigates how LGBTQ+ content creators navigate these algorithm-driven platforms, focusing on their negotiation of digital normativity to share non-heterosexual content and foster queer sociality in China. Avoiding the oversimplification of viewing algorithms […]
- by İpek YeğinsüConvergence, Ahead of Print. In an age marked by the Post-media condition, the term ‘New Media Art’ remains in use in reference to a professional territory not autonomous, but also different from the territory of Contemporary Art, and its members use various rhetorical tactics to maintain and expand their professional authority. This study aims at analyzing the professional ideology of the New Media Art territory in Turkey using Thomas F. Gieryn’s concept of the ‘boundary-work’. The data obtained via semi-structured in-depth interviews conducted with a purposively sampled population of artists, curators and producers are used to assess whether a common […]
- by Carolina AreConvergence, Ahead of Print. Faced with offline discrimination, LGBTQIA+ users frequently turn to social media to find role models, build social networks and test out new forms of self-expression. Each platform has its own affordances and governance processes which can, in turn, facilitate or impede self-expression and community growth. Through a survey of 120 LGBTQIA+ participants, this paper considers which social media affordances facilitate the creation and development of LGBTQIA+ identities, support online and offline community formation and peer-to-peer learning, whilst limiting opportunities for online abuse. While previous research has so far largely focused on younger LGBTQIA+ users' experiences on […]
- by Anna SchjøttConvergence, Ahead of Print. With the recent development of debunking on social media as a dominant agenda, fact checkers have increasingly used machine learning (ML) to identify, verify and correct factual claims, as ML promises the scaling of fact checking practices. However, it also places a new actor in between the fact checkers and the fact checked users. In this paper, we conducted a contrasted analysis of how fact checkers and fact checked users understand, evaluate and act towards the algorithmic system and the data flows in Meta’s Third-Party Fact-Checking Program: We did ethnographic fieldwork in the fact checking newsroom […]
- by Salvador Gómez-GarcíaConvergence, Ahead of Print. This study explores Fursan al-Aqsa: The Knights of the Al-Aqsa Mosque (developed by Nidal Nijm Games in 2022) highlighting its role in the portrayal of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as a paradigm between propaganda and entertainment. By examining the game’s discourse, and its impact on player perceptions, this research sheds light on how video games can shape understanding and engagement with geopolitical issues. The research utilises Albert Bandura’s concept of moral disengagement to analyse the game’s content and its reception on platforms like Twitch and YouTube. By assessing how the game frames moral considerations through its narrative and gameplay, […]
- by Stine LomborgConvergence, Ahead of Print. This paper addresses data reflexivity in terms of critical consciousness-raising by linking people’s everyday encounters with data to their speculative visions about datafied futures. We suggest everyday encounters with data about oneself might play an important role in facilitating both personal and collective imagination about data and devising future paths towards legitimate and meaningful datafied living. Lending inspiration from the figure of the researcher as critical companion and from speculative design, we posit that critical consciousness-raising is not something generated purely by way of informing people about datafication, but built from below, through people’s everyday experiences […]
- by Madhavi ReddyConvergence, Ahead of Print.
- by Dasol KimConvergence, Ahead of Print. Oliver-ssaem, a White American and former English teacher in South Korea, has risen to prominence as a YouTube content creator exploring both Korean and American cultures. His intentional role as a cultural intermediary between Korea and the U.S. highlights how he strategically employs his Whiteness to enhance visibility. When targeting Korean viewers, Oliver-ssaem not only praises and endorses the excellence of Korean culture and products but also highlights negative aspects of U.S. culture. The perceived value of his endorsement and mediation of U.S. culture is rooted in Oliver-ssaem’s embodiment of a desirable, objective, and progressive Whiteness, […]
- by Celina StrzeleckaConvergence, Ahead of Print. The article critically examines the implementation and impact of the Digital Urban Waste Tracking System (DUWTS), a ‘smart’ waste management technology deployed in several towns in Poland to enhance urban waste segregation practices. By integrating critical discard studies with critical data studies, the article introduces the concept of ‘waste data reflectivity’ to investigate how data representation in DUWTS influences perceptions and responsibilities within waste management. The study highlights how DUWTS employs advanced dataveillance technologies to monitor waste disposal, creating distorted reflections that obscure the complexities of municipal waste management. These distortions are analyzed through the metaphorical […]
- by Rituparna BanerjeeConvergence, Ahead of Print. This paper explores the visual politics of gender in electoral politics in West Bengal (WB). We examine how women political candidates visually construct their non-verbal political performance on social media, and how such visuals relate to social mores and societal expectations surrounding femininity. Drawing on theories of the social construction of gender and visual political communication, we conducted a content analysis of 1,033 visual artefacts from eight individual women candidates and 205 from the Facebook and X (formerly Twitter) pages of the four main political parties taking part in the January-April 2021 electoral campaign for state-level […]
- by Norma MusihConvergence, Ahead of Print. In this article, we evaluate the politics of recommendation engines by focusing on an indispensible feature of their operation: training. We use the notion of training as a key word which helps us link three bodies of knowledge: data science, the history of automation, and aesthetic and political theory. Training is a staple in the operation of algorithmic systems, and artificial intelligence more generally; it is a practical methodology by which these systems become intelligent. Training is also a key feature of how workers throughout history came to perform their labor, and how, during the 20th […]
- by Ausma BernotConvergence, Ahead of Print. In China, the escalating repression of gender and sexual diversity has given rise to ‘queer necropolitics’. ‘Queer necropolitics’ – a concept we build on – refers to the hegemonic ability to determine who is allowed to suffer, survive, or thrive. We examine China’s sustained re-enforcement of traditional gender norms, which has rendered queer communities non-existent from official recognition. In this context, we aim to understand how China’s state queer necropolitics has shaped queer organising in the country. From 2021 to 2022, we conducted 26 semi-structured interviews with a diverse cohort of self-identified LGBTIQ+ members and activists across 12 provinces in […]