How The Web Devalues Creativity

By lowering the barriers to communication, the Web has not made it possible for writers to make more money; instead large corporate aggregators are taking advantage of creators to make themselves rich. MaryAnn Johanson is the creator of one of the oldest independent film review sites on the web (flickfilosopher.com). In this lecture she addresses the problems of the long tail for the long tailees. How can a creative professional make a living through the Web, when all the power is held by the aggregators? So much for radical disintermediation... This share contains the lecture slides (see slide #29-30 for the summary of her argument), the lecture audio, further reading, a link to her web site and a critique of The Longer Tail from students at another Web Science Trust Network lab.

ARTD6063 CONTEMPORARY ISSUES 4

The module takes as its starting point the assumption that as future artists, designers and professionals in the creative industries you will be future producers of visual culture. You will be introduced to some of the core theoretical issues that underpin the production of visual culture including questions of what an image is, how it works, its relationship to ideology and theories of representation. Please contact Gordon Hon if you have any questions before selecting the module. G.Hon@soton.ac.uk