Creative Industries and theFuture of UniversitiesPresentation to School of Journalism and Mass Communication, University of Colorado, Boulder, CO, 13 March, 2012

Professor Terry Flew, QUT

Sources of funding per students ($a)

Sources of funding for Australian universities, 2010

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UK DCMS 13 CI sectors

Source: DCMS 1998

‘New Labour’ and Creative Industries

• The role of creative enterprise and cultural contribution … is a key economic issue … The value stemming from the creation of intellectual capital is becoming increasingly important as an economic component of national wealth … Industries, many of them new, that rely on creativity and imaginative intellectual property, are becoming the most rapidly growing and important part of our national economy. They are where the jobs and the wealth of the future are going to be generated (Chris Smith, in DCMS, 1998).

• Creative talent will be crucial to our individual and national success in the economy of the future (Tony Blair, in DCMS, 2001).

• In the coming years, the creative industries will be important not only for our national prosperity, but for Britain’s ability to put culture and creativity at the center of our national life (Gordon Brown, in DCMS, 2008).

That was then, this is now?

The ‘Concentric Circles’ model

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US: Copyright and Creative Industries

COPYRIGHTINDUSTRIES6% of GDP

CREATIVE (ARTS)

INDUSTRIES2.9% of GDP

?

Source: IIPA 2006; Americans for the Arts 2008

Problems with ‘Concentric Circles’

• ‘There is no longer a stable hierarchy of value … running from “high” to “low” culture’ (John Frow, 1995: 1).

• ‘The logic of many [publicly] funded arts organisations is poorly equipped to respond to the plethora of new artists, art forms, audiences, genres, and subcultures emerging in a rapidly changing cultural dynamic’ (Marcus Westbury and Ben Eltham, 2010: 42).

• Under the new model of culture … cultural policy is no longer confined to a small budget line and a narrow set of questions about art. On the contrary, if we understand culture … as a networked activity, where funded, home-made and commercial culture are deeply interconnected – then we can start to appreciate the wider value of culture in and to society (John Holden, 2009: 449-450).

UNCTAD Model of the Creative Industries

UNESCO Cultural Domains

• Direct domains– Cultural and natural heritage;– Performance and celebration;– Visual arts and crafts;– Books and print media;– Audio-visual and interactive media;– Design and creative services;

• Related domains– Tourism, hospitality and accommodation;– Sports and recreation.

UNESCO Culture Cycle

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Creative Trident

• Specialist creatives (cultural occupation/cultural industry

• Embedded creatives

(cultural occupation/non-cultural industry

• Support activities (non-cultural occupation/cultural industry

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Australian creative workforce - using creative trident

Source: Higgs, Cunningham and Pagan 2007.

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Sectoral composition- employment

Source: Higgs, Cunningham and Pagan 2007

CI growth by sector, Australia, 1996-2007

Fifth Techno-Economic Paradigm (Perez)

From mass communications media to social media: the crisis of news

MASS COMMUNICATIONS MEDIA (20TH CENTURY)

SOCIAL MEDIA (21ST CENTURY)

MEDIA DISTRIBUTION Large-scale; barriers to entry Dramatically reduced barriers to entry

MEDIA PRODUCTION Complex division of labour; media professionals as content ‘gatekeepers’

Easy to use web 2.0 technologies; small, multi-purpose teams as “preditors” (Miller)

MEDIA POWER Assymetrical – one-way communications flow

Greater empowerment of users/audiences through interactivity and choice

MEDIA CONTENT Tendency towards standardised “mass appeal” content

Segmentation of media content markets and “long tail” economics (Anderson)

PRODUCER/CONSUMER RELATIONSHIP

Mostly impersonal, anonymous and commoditised (audience as mass market target)

Potential to be more personal; rise of the produser (Bruns); user networks and communities

PAYMENT SYSTEM Audiences cross subsidised by advertisers (commercial media) or tax revenues (public service media)

Not clear as yet: subscription, “freemium”, free?

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Verticals and horizontals

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Definitions of Culture