Editor in Chief: Moh. Reza Huwaida Thursday, March 28th, 2024

Why Afghanistan Needs Media Convergence

The Web and its related technologies have expressively influenced not only the ways in which news is consumed, but also how journalism education and the ongoing training of news professionals are undertaken.                                                       
How relevant is journalism curriculum in preparing the students to meet new Challenges posed by the emergence of new media? 
The pressures of communication revolution and the information revolution in the mid-nineties forced the journalism educators to discuss alternate models of curriculum. They found the answer in convergence. There are different meanings of the term, “Convergence” and the term is defined and interpreted here within realms of journalism. According to Quinn; Convergence in journalism is referred to as, ‘multiple-platform publishing’ or as ‘integrated journalism.
In media, convergence has given new content generating and delivery platforms. In journalism education, convergence is perceived as imparting education and training across print, broadcast, and online media platforms. Today television, broadband, cell phone and radio have converged to give news round the clock for different readers/listeners/viewers indicating the different ways the news is delivered at the convenience of the audience. Like a web page convergence curriculum is dynamic requiring constant upgrading bridging the void between theory and practice.
The coming of technology in media operations has altered in a positive way, the ecology of mass communication across the world. The haste of the adoption and diffusion of innovations in the contemporary media industry is posing a great challenge to media educators as the newsroom appears to be continually ahead of the classroom, especially in the developing world.
In Afghanistan, like other developing nations, Mass Communication educators grapple with the challenge of ever-increasing innovations and try to incorporate such in the curriculum. 
While it is difficult to provide a journalism and mass communication curriculum that is all things to all students, the dynamism and psychology of media audiences have become so intricate and complex such that no media professional that is worth his salt can afford to ignore. Because readers’ likes and dislikes keep changing, we, too, must keep changing. That is why readership research, focus groups and listening exercises are such important tools to use as we reshape and rebuild the newspaper. Hence, while the aim of media practitioners remains how to stay afloat in the competitive media market through the constant creation and design of sophisticated media product/cutting edge content, both educators and professionals need to work together to re-invent journalism and mass communication education. 
As a result, the mindset should not be about creating new forms of journalism or mass communication, but about new ways of reaching and engaging audiences. The same holds true for educators. Just as the media look to innovative techniques to reach audiences, educators should be asking themselves if they are doing everything possible to reach and engage their students.
In journalism education, convergence is regarded as ‘teaching students to  think, report, and write across print, broadcast, and online media platforms’. Branded as multi-platform reporting, convergence takes all new kinds of new media ranging from websites to cell phones to blogs and to iPods. From the educator’s perspective, convergence is meant to be a blurring of the lines between what have historically been distinct areas of study, the outcome of which is a ‘converged curriculum.
Modern technologies have given mass communication media the ability to adopt new forms of publication never explored before. At the present time newspapers have the opportunity to include audio and video on their web publications. Broadcast stations now have the opportunity to include text on their web publications. This approach to new types of unexplored formats is what is called Media convergence.
Media convergence relies on the fact that the members of a given and particular media will have the capacity to work with different formats .In a technology-driven media environment, journalism scholars and educators must make time to stand back from the front line and develop perspective on the wider field for the purpose of better defining journalism education and redesigning its curriculum to keep pace with today’s media platforms.