Architecture as media and the war of presence

This essay is a critique of the discourse concerned with a so coiled Crisis of Representation. It examines the role of representational media (text and drawing) in the formation of the notion of an architectural ‘work’ and argues that there is no necessary privilege to any ordering of modes of representation rather particular orderings uncover specific agendas.

The Music Industry : Music in the Cloud, 2nd edition

The music industry is going through a period of immense change brought about in part by the digital revolution. What is the role of music in the age of computers and the Internet? How has the music industry been transformed by the economic and technological upheavals of recent years, and how is it likely to change in the future? This thoroughly revised and updated new edition provides an international overview of the music industry and its future prospects in the world of global entertainment. Patrik Wikström illuminates the workings of the music industry, and captures the dynamics at work in the production of musical culture between the transnational media conglomerates, the independent music companies and the public. New to this second edition are expanded sections on the structure of the music industry, online business models and the links between social media and music. Engaging and comprehensive, The Music Industry will be a must-read for students and scholars of media and communication studies, cultural studies, popular music, sociology and economics.

The impact of personal identity and intimacy on the use of social media

Personal identity and intimacy levels change over time and this can influence the way consumers buy and use goods and services. This thesis examined how levels of personal identity and intimacy influence the use of social media by consumers of different ages. A survey of 208 users of facebook demonstrated that consumers with weak levels of personal identity use social media to increase their identity and popularity, while consumers with strong levels of personal identity use social media for self-expression. Consumers with high intimacy levels use social media for socian connection and social investigation.

The impact of social media features on print media firms’ online business models

Many newspapers and magazines have added “social media features” to their web-based information services in order to allow users to participate in the production of content. This study examines the specific impact of the firm’s investment in social media features on their online business models. We make a comparative case study of four Scandinavian print media firms that have added social media features to their online services. We show how social media features lead to online business model innovation, particularly linked to the firms’ value propositions. The paper discusses the repercussions of this transformation on firms’ relationship with consumers and with traditional content contributors. The modified value proposition also requires firms to acquire new competences in order to reap full benefit of their social media investments. We show that the firms have been unable to do so since they have not allowed the social media features to affect their online revenue models.

Literary prosumers : young people’s reading and writing in a new media landscape

The production of culture is today a matter of ‘user generated content’ and young people are vital participants as ‘prosumers’, i.e. both producers and consumers, of cultural products. Among other things, they are busy creating fan works (stories, pictures, films) based on already published material. Using the genre fan fiction as a point of departure, this article explores the drivers behind net communities organised around fan culture and argues that fan fiction sites can in many aspects be regarded as informal learning settings. By turning to the rhetoric principle of imitatio, the article shows how in the collective interactive processes between readers and writers such fans develop literacies and construct gendered identities.

The enemy of music : modeling the behavior of a cultural industry in crisis

The purpose of this explorative study is to contribute to the understanding of current music industry dynamics. The situation is undeniably quite dramatic: Since the turn of the millennium, the global music industry has declined by $ US 6.2 billion in value—a fall of 16.3% in constant dollar terms. IFPI, the trade organization representing the international recording industry, identifies a number of exogenous factors as the main drivers of the downturn. This article suggests that other factors, in addition to those identified by IFPI, may have contributed to the current difficulties. A model is presented which indicates that business strategies which were designed to cope with the challenging business environment have reduced product diversity, damaged profitability, and contributed to the problem they were intended to solve.

Recognition and moral progress : a case study about discourses on disability in the media

This article aims to discuss the notion of moral progress in the theory of recognition. It argues that Axel Honneth's program offers sophisticated theoretical guidance to observe and critically interpret emancipatory projects in contemporary politics based on ideas of individuality and social inclusiveness. Using a case study – the investigation, through frame analysis, of transformations in the portrayal of people with impairment as well as in public discourses on the issue of disability in major Brazilian news media from 1960 to 2008 – this article addresses three controversies: the notion of progress as a directional process; the problem of moral disagreement and conflict of interest in struggles for recognition; and the processes of social learning. By articulating empirically based arguments and Honneth's normative discussions, this study concludes that one can talk about moral progress without losing sight of value pluralism and conflict of interest.

Theatre, social media and spectatorship : translating commentary, critique and controversy across media

The occasional ArtsHub article asking spectators to show respect for stage by switching all devices off notwithstanding, in the last few years we have witnessed an clear push to make more use of social media as a means by which spectators might respond to a performance across most theatre companies. Mainstage companies, as well as contemporary companies are asking us to turn on, tune in and tweet our impressions of a show to them, to each other, and to the masses – sometimes during the show, sometimes after the show, and sometimes without having seen the show. In this paper, I investigate the relationship between theatre, spectatorship and social media, tracing the transition from print platforms in which expert critics were responsible for determining audience response to today’s online platforms in which everybody is responsible for debating responses. Is the tendency to invite spectators to comment via social media before, during, or after a show the advance in audience engagement, entertainment and empowerment many hail it to be? Is it a return to a more democratised past in which theatres were active, interactive and at times downright rowdy, and the word of the published critic had yet to take over from the word of the average punter? Is it delivering distinctive shifts in theatre and theatrical meaning making? Or is it simply a good way to get spectators to write about a work they are no longer watching? An advance in the marketing of the work rather than an advance in the active, interactive aesthetic of the work? In this paper, I consider what the performance of spectatorship on social media tells us about theatre, spectatorship and meaning-making. I use initial findings about the distinctive dramaturgies, conflicts and powerplays that characterise debates about performance and performance culture on social media to reflect on the potentially productive relationship between theatre, social media, spectatorship, and meaning making. I suggest that the distinctive patterns of engagement displayed on social media platforms – including, in many cases, remediation rather than translation, adaptation or transformation of prior engagement practices – have a lot to tell us about how spectators and spectator groups negotiate for the power to provide the dominant interpretation of a work.

Media and information literacy : policy and strategy guidelines

In the evolving knowledge societies of today, some people are overloaded with information, others are starved for information. Everywhere, people are yearning to freely express themselves,to actively participate in governance processes and cultural exchanges. Universally, there is a deep thirst to understand the complex world around us. Media and Information Literacy (MIL) is a basis for enhancing access to information and knowledge, freedom of expression, and quality education. It describes skills, and attitudes that are needed to value the functions of media and other information providers, including those on the Internet, in societies and to find, evaluate and produce information and media content; in other words, it covers the competencies that are vital for people to be effectively engaged in all aspects of development.

Media arts section, arts Pop : arts packages of practice

This Media Arts-POP implements Media Arts curriculum in a Year 4 classroom at Waterford West State School, Queensland. While media arts form was the lead area for this package, students developed knowledge of and skills in English, visual arts and some elements of music. In the media arts elements, students learned to use media production equipment (in this case iPads, although other tablets could be used), and to use techniques such as composition and lighting to capture digital images and to record voice and sound effects. The package demonstrates that a number of curriculum areas can be combined to ensure that various curriculum areas are covered without losing the specificity of any one area.

Graphic death in the news media : present or absent?

The debate over the absence or presence of death in public discourse has dominated death studies for some time. While the argument that death had been removed from public discourse and only existed in the private realm dominated at first, in recent years scholars have come to accept that death has moved back into public discourse. An important aspect has been the role played by the mass media. However, there has been little empirical research as to what level of death is actually visible, for example in terms of photographs. To this end, this paper examines how two German and two Australian newspapers cover death in terms of graphic photographs. By examining the number and types of photographs published during a 2-month timeframe, as well as through in-depth interviews with journalists, this paper argues that visible death is still largely absent from public discourse. Importantly, there exist differences as to what level of graphic death is acceptable between individual newspapers, as well as countries, supporting the argument that the absence/presence of death dichotomy needs to be viewed in a much more complex light.

Representing Death in the News : Journalism, Media and Mortality

Recent years have seen a renewed interest in the relationship between the news, media and death. Driven by a perceived ubiquity of death and dying on television, in newspapers and on the internet, many scholars have attempted to more closely examine aspects of this coverage. The result is that there now exists a large body of scholarly work on death in the news, yet what has been lacking is a comprehensive synthesis of the field. This book seeks to close this gap by analyzing the scholarship on death in the news by way of a thematic approach. It provides a historical overview, looks at the conditions of production, content and reception, and also analyzes emerging trends in the representation of death online. This fascinating account provides a much needed overview of what we currently know about death in the news and provides food for thought for future studies in the field.

Publishing

Publishing is no doubt one of the oldest and most diverse sectors in the creative economy. While publishing originally was associated with print and paper, the term is nowadays also commonly used to represent organizations that control, administer and license intellectual properties in other sectors of the creative economy such as videogames and music. While the title of this chapter is ‘Publishing’, we have no intention of covering all publishing related activities, but will focus on the economic consequences of digitization on two traditional and important print media sectors, namely books and magazines. Within these sectors we will specifically focus on consumer magazines and trade books, in other words books and magazines that are sold via commercial retailers to consumers. It is relevant to study these two publishing industries, since they share a number of very fundamental characteristics and have experienced similar economic consequences caused by the digitization of the creative economy. Both industries have undergone a gradual shift from print to digital and increasingly rely on revenues based on digital content carriers such as e- books, tablet magazine applications, special interest websites, blogs and so on.

Games and entertainment software

Games and the broader interactive entertainment industry are the major ‘born global/born digital’ creative industry. The videogame industry (formally referred to as interactive entertainment) is the economic sector that develops, markets and sells videogames to millions of people worldwide. There are over 11 countries with revenues of over $1 billion. This number was expected to grow 9.1 per cent annually to $48.9 in 2011 and $68 billion in 2012, making it the fastest-growing component of the international media sector (Scanlon, 2007; Caron, 2008).