social media

Social media sites Twitter and Facebook played a crucial role in disseminating information during the 2011 Queensland floods. That is the key finding of a report released today by the ARC Centre of Excellence for Creative Industries and Innovation (CCI), and available for download at http://cci.edu.au/floodsreport.pdf.

CCI researchers Assoc. Prof. Axel Bruns and Dr. Jean Burgess from Queensland University of Technology (QUT) and Assoc. Prof. Kate Crawford and Frances Shaw from the University of New South Wales focussed especially on the role of Twitter, which was prominently used by the Queensland Police Service during the crisis.

“Through their @QPSMedia Twitter account, police staff provided timely updates directly from the Queensland Premier’s situation meetings,” said Professor Bruns. “Many mainstream media picked up on these updates and included them in their own news tickers.”

Dr Burgess added that social media did much more than just improve communication between police and media organisations. “During the week of 10 January 2011, some 15,000 users participated in the #qldfloods hashtag on Twitter, sharing news, advice, photos and videos of the inundation,” she said.

This submission made to the Independent Media Inquiry presents and analyses data from the Australian component of the World Internet Project. The data shows that the internet has quickly become a key news and information source for Australians. Online official news sources mostly run by existing 'offline' news organisations dominate. The data also points to most consumers reluctance to pay for news and information delivered online.

Essentially, the story of the CCI has been to give substance to the link between creative industries and innovation, to explore its implications for our core academic discipline fields and several policy domains and, working with industry and community, to assist in its application in practical circumstances. In short, it has sought to mainstream innovation in and through the creative industries for policy consideration, deepen it for academic engagement, and apply it for industry and community benefit.

The ‘object of study’ has been arguably more changeable over the period than fields of research intensity such as biotechnology, medical research or IT. Rapid developments, in particular in social media, have occasioned major social, economic and cultural impact. Significant theoretical work has been developed around economics and culture which attempts to feed into this volatile landscape. There is much further to be done.

This narrative is organised around the impact or ‘National Benefit’ claims the centre has set itself from day one. These are outcomes-based and thus most appropriate.

Download the full story here

The global release of 250,000 United States Embassy diplomatic cables to selected media sites worldwide through the WikiLeaks web site was arguably the major global media event of 2010. As well as the implications of the content of the cables for international politics and diplomacy, the actions of WikiLeaks and its controversial editor-in-chief, the Australian Julian Assange, bring together a range of arguments about how the media, news and journalism are being transformed in the 21st century.

‘Digital economy policy for the creative industries is framed too commonly in terms of refining and strengthening intellectual property rights. As digitalization grows in scope and importance, Lucy Montgomery’s intriguing book shows how the limitations of this narrow approach have become all too apparent, as China’s creative industries are thriving in an ever increasing digital global society because (and not despite) of the fact that their businesses, innovations, skills and markets have grown up with weak copyright enforcement regimes.’

In this chapter for Managing Media Work, edited by Mark Deuze and published by Sage, Terry Flew looks at key texts mapping the economical and policy context of managing media companies and the organization of labor
and production across the creative industries.

Managing Media Work, edited by Mark Deuze, is now out. Information about the book can be found on the SAGE Web site. The Table of Contents is here.

Life without the internet, a very new technology, seems almost unimaginable for most people in western nations. Today the internet is intrinsic to media and communications, entertainment, politics, defence, business, banking, education and administrative systems as well as to social interaction. The Internet disentangles this extraordinarily complex information and communication technology from its place in our daily lives, allowing it to be examined anew.

The phenomenon of consumer co-creation is often framed in terms of whether either economic market forces or socio-cultural non-market forces ultimately dominate. We propose an alternate model of consumer co-creation in terms of co-evolution between markets and non-markets.

With the revenue downturn for Fairfax Media being announced on Monday, I got the call from Ashley Hall at the ABC’s PM program to give my opinion. At 2.45pm I may not have been sure that I had an opinion, but the nature of the relationship between news journalists and academics is that it would be good for all concerned if you could get an opinion, and give that to us to put on air. With Crikey publisher Eric Beecher and former ACCC head Allan Fels also offering their opinions, I was in good company on the PM program.

Much recent research into citizen journalism has focussed on its role in political debate and deliberation. Such research examines important questions about citizen participation in democratic processes – however, it perhaps places undue focus on only one area of journalistic coverage, and presents a challenge which only a small number of citizen journalism projects can realistically hope to meet.