In Convergence Culture (one of my favourite books on media and culture), Henry jenkins talks about the 'Black Box' fallacy, the common argument that sooner or later all media content will flow through a single black box that sits in our living rooms or that we carry around with us, when actually convergence is more about content and people than it is about technology. The book describes a model of media defined by Lisa Gitelman that works on two levels: a medium is a technology that enables communication but it is also a set of associated 'protocols' - social and cultural practices that have grown up around that technology. Delivery systems, as technologies, may come and go. But media are also cultural systems, so the more interesting aspect of new technologies is the shift in protocols that they facilitate.
More
Support this project and others with 1-click micro-donations
