Convergence / Submergence

"Convergence" is the buzz word of the moment. "Digital convergence" refers to the use of communications / entertainment hardware devices from cell-phones to I-Pods(TM) to PC's and plasma screens with card readers.

"Media convergence" deals with the the processing of content, and the blending of medium and message presentation. Delivery mediums--newspapers, television, Internet, digitalcasts--are spilling into one-another's space. In the same fashion, long-held definitions separating the disiciplines of Journalism, Public Relations, Marketing and Business development are overlapping one-another.

Unfortunately, credibility is a casualty of the process. Institutional crediblity submerges under the weight of message clutter.

And when the messaging from institutional bastions of communicative order becomes unclear, muddled or uncertain, individuals draw closer to personalized sources of believable information...friends and opinion leaders in their own limited spheres of activity.

The paradox: With more access than ever to a world of information...the process of establishing credibility becomes more and more intimate, draws closer and closer to home, among those we know personally. Word-of-mouth has become KING...and the blog our tool of personalized self expression whose influence- though limited- rings with righteous authenticity in our own, personal networks.