Sigthorsson, Gauti (2009) The creative masses of digital Britain. In: Transforming Audiences 2, 3 - 4 September 2009, University of Westminster, London, UK. (Unpublished)

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Abstract

The present recession has prompted scholarly and journalistic questioning of the contributions of the cultural industries to the economy. The talent-rich metropolitan clusters of London and New York are well-placed to ride out a thoroughgoing shakeup of the media markets if they manage their infrastructure, space and resources strategically, as Richard Florida has recently argued. This seems to be the assumption behind the recent Digital Britain interim report, and Gordon Brown's remarks that a digital revolution "lies at the heart" of Britain's economic recovery and that broadband and the media industry can play a leading role in pulling the UK out of the recession. Focusing on the Digital Britain report and consultation documents, this presentation seeks to unpack some of the fundamental assumptions behind this link between digital infrastructure, creativity and profitability. In particular the implicit notion of an engaged audience of users,
generating "content" as well as shaping new media platforms calls into question long-held theoretical constructions of the mass audience of consumers as spectators; instead, the
audience emerges as a potential economic powerhouse, an underused resource for tomorrow's cultural industries.

Item Type:	Conference or Conference Paper (Lecture)
Uncontrolled Keywords:	digital Britain, digital infrastructure, digital revolution, cultural industries,
Subjects:	H Social Sciences > HM Sociology
Pre-2014 Departments:	School of Humanities & Social Sciences School of Humanities & Social Sciences > Department of Communications & Creative Arts
Related URLs:	Organisation Organisation Author Author
Last Modified:	02 Oct 2019 14:40
URI:	http://gala.gre.ac.uk/id/eprint/1432

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