THE PHENOMENON OF MEDIA CONVERGENCE IN THE REPUBLIC OF MOLDOVA: CONDITIONS OF AFFIRMATION AND FORMS OF MANIFESTATION.

The media convergence is a phenomenon that has recently occurred in the local media. The first step toward convergence - the development of online environment - was made in '2000, when the information technologies entered the circuit and the Internet extended on the media market. The first forms of convergence have occurred only in 2010, when the press holdings Jurnal Trust Media and General Media Grup SRL were launched. Although we may already speak about a certain level of media convergence in the local massmedia, the various collaborations between press institutions aim mainly at the personal interests of their owners of financiers, who, usually, come from the political or business field and have the purpose to manipulate or to get certain benefits. From this prospect, the phenomenon of convergence identifies itself with another nationally and internationally well-known phenomenon - the concentration of media property, limiting the pluralism of opinions and weakening the quality of the journalistic content. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]