The History of Creative Industries Policy - Case Study Example

Analyze the paradigm shifts for museum collections in the digital era? Will these shifts have a positive impact on culture? Discuss Author’s name Institutional affiliation Introduction Creative and entertainment industries have been in existence formally since nineteen nineties. Museums which are institutions which are institutions or buildings that store cultural or historical objects, artifacts and scientific interests are kept. They are educational sources and form part of the cultural industry which transformed to creative industry after industrial revolution. Technology advancement has been the backbone of the digital transformation in the industry (O’Connor, 2010). The aim of this paper is to analyze the paradigm shifts that have been experienced in the museum industry. It also reviews existing literature on paradigm shifts and in the creative industry. Analysis of the sources of funding for arts and creative industry have been explained in detail. The paper also explores the history of creative industries policy and located a few arguments related to it. The impacts of paradigm shifts in the museum collection on culture have been discussed into detail. In 1990s creative industries concept was adopted with few terms such as copyright industries, creative sector, experienced economy, media industries, content industries, communication and cultural industries being created for the support of these industries. All these terms were created during the process of developing and establishing policies of creative industries in the economic context. In 1994, the government of Australia documented creative industries concept, with new cultural policy that was formulated by the government with the aim of shaping the creative industry sector (Nicolas, 2001). IT opportunity and new global culture driven by digital media commenced. Creative industries essentially were represented as a cultural policy with the purpose of economy policy. Creative industries report by Australian government stressed the very importance of art and cultural activity. The creative nation had higher potential in cultural sector with over about 336,000 citizens occupying job positions in cultural-related industries and around 13 million being generated by these industries. The concept of creative industry was adopted by United Kingdom around 1997, during the period when ICT development was actively thought of. The ICT development played part in the building of creative industries. Creative industry concept was understood through society policy information (Nicolas, 2001). In 1989there was a potential decline in business London city. The principles to develop the economy by the government were wanting therefore it created alternative ways to grow the nation’s economy. For this reason in 1983, it developed new policy which included various creative industries concept being included According to Moore (2014), innovation and technology has led to immense growth in the creative industry. Creativity was incorporated as an asset in the nineteen nineties despite many challenges which faced the policy makers and those in the industry. They initially were regarded to as cultural industries. This changed after industrial revolution which brought about innovation and creativity. Film, print media and radio changed the face of the cultural industry. Economic and social dimensions of life have had great change since the nineteenth century with human beings venturing into coming up with new ideas to solve issues and increase economic output. Creative industries incorporate urban rejuvenation since most architecture work involves art and creativity. Urban renewal led to extinction of many buildings as new ideas were used to eject better and new buildings. According to creative city toolkit of 2000 as cited by Moore (2014), there is need to embrace creativity and innovation in city structures and government buildings. Two years down the line, Richard backed up the idea by arguing that for social dynamism to be witnessed in a city, there has to be institutions to produce high class individuals in the creative industry. His research reviewed that these would impact greatly on ejecting infrastructural structures attractive enough to pull people and investors from different parts of the world. This in return impacts positively to the economy of the particular country. The shifts in Museum collections are evident in many dimensions. Most museums have adopted the use of social media to market their products. This is because a huge population of people in the digital era have access to electronic media and spend most of their times of social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. This helps in creation of awareness of upcoming Exhibition shows to people who can easily spread the information to their friends by tagging them or sharing on their timelines. This is a way to increase the brand name of the particular museum. In most instances, this is achieved by ensuring that up to date information and data is kept on the lime light in order to engage interested parties (Richardson, 2009 cited by Spiliopoulou et al., 2014). A research done by Spiliopoulou et al., (2014) reviews that most organizations and companies including museums use Facebook- a social media platform created mainly for use among students in Harvard University but later grew and expanded to other areas of the world. Their research used British Museum due to its rich nature of cultural collection. According to their research, the museum companies put many factors into consideration before posting the collection on the social media pages. They are aware that they serve people from all over the world who have different historical backgrounds and perceptions. The demographics of age and gender too are considered. They post the exhibitions or events coupled with images in order to increase the visual view and attractiveness. The impact of the postings is mainly rated through the number of likes, shares and comments on Facebook social media and retweets on twitter. For the use of social media to be successful, there has to be a chain of social media individuals who share information about the museum events and the friends share with others. The museum officials can also post a question which can be debated upon on social media sites. The great pool of ideas from diversified individuals is precisely key in brainstorming ideas which can improve their services. However, the research reviewed that the use of the social media sites has a limitation to authenticity since they only rely on the information provided by the users whereby more often than not, it is usually false. Bertacchini et al describe the paradigm shifts in museum collection as multidimensional. The transition to digital era has been reviewed to bring about new opportunities in the creative industries. It has increased the number of people accessing arts and museum collections. New technology has made it possible to link institutions with different museum collections thus enhancing collaboration and transfer of knowledge. The cost effective nature of the digital distribution of cultural collection has made it possible for ease conveyance of message among service providers and potential clients. The digital model of licensing has been reviewed to more simplified and economical as compared to the traditional model. This has been supported by Brey (2009) who argued that the ability to reproduce digital cultural collections makes it easy for all users to adopt. Museums have been the source of cultural collection to many people since the ancient world. People of each generation have been able to view the ancient artefacts, caves, war equipment used in world war, monuments, statutes of famous legends and many others. They have kept people close to their cultural affiliation (Boogh, 2013). Initially, museum stored collection access involved physical movement interested persons to the specific museum. In-house exhibitions were the main form used whereby people were assisted by special technicians to tour and identify most items. They have impacted greatly on economic dimension due to their power to attract people from all over the world. “The core mission of museums was to preserve, catalogue and develop the collection, to provide access to it so that to transmit national and global culture to the general public and to make material available for research” (Alexander, 1983; Lewis, 2011 as cited by Bertacchini (2009). Museums harbor educational facilities for those in arts and entertainment departments of education. Due to globalization and the technological advancement that comes with it, the industry has seen transformation over years. With time the use of Films and printed media has eased learning in giving a view of what is expected when they students get to the museum and for those who are not in a position to at least have an idea of the specific items. Studies have shown that the shift in museum collection is influenced by individual desires. The age especially the generation X and the millennia spend most of their time on social media. They have developed a virtual world where they interact with people from all over the world and have even developed relationships with people they have never met face to face. Students have gone to an extent of adopting internet discussion groups as opposed to physical ones. This factor therefore makes the adoption of new technology in the creative industry especially museums inevitable. However, most individuals seek for entertainment from museum collection (Stogner, 2009). The use of videos and music has diluted the need for education among many students. This therefore continues to be greatest challenge to museum practitioners. They are continually seeking a balance between the educational and entertainment aspects of digital adoption in the creative and arts industry. The other greatest challenge towards the shift due to digital evolution is that there are a high chances of been provided of obsolete information which is quite different from what is real at the physical museum. In 19 century, the process of industrialization built a greater demand for standardization in order to create a better economy. Urbanization, industrialization and new economic activities brought changes in philosophical attitude which stimulated the growth of creative industries with cultural policy to expand the economy. Between 20th and 21st century after II world war the popular culture such as media culture and consumer culture played a greater part in development of creative industries. Policies of creative industries from 19 century to 21 century opened up the economy of nations across the world as claimed by various studies. Museums have been affected largely by austerity with services cutbacks, redundancies and downsizing. Paradigm in museum collection will have a greater future impact in culture because it will affect historical culture understanding as scholars will find it difficult to trace certain scholarly historical devices (Bonn et al., 2007). By 21st century, with 2.0 revolution and internet all over the world has affected museums. Online stores such as YouTube and other internet platforms displaying arts works is strongly believed that by 2020, this shift in paradigm on museums will reduce the number of visitors which may result in reduced cultural exhibitions. For this reason museums will have to be reinvented in order to offset these paradigm shifts and preserve the historical cultures (Bonn et al., 2007). Digital tools and physical destinations should not be the importance of museums but building trust with public will ensure cultural will not be imparted due to paradigm shift. Conclusion It can be sum up that the creative and entertainment industry has been in existences since the eighteen century. It evolved from eh cultural industry after the industrial revolution era. Museum collection which is part of creative industry has taken a create shift due to the digital era. The use of websites and other social media sites especially Facebook has made the virtual interaction with people generate new ideas in the industry. However, it is coupled with several challenges in terms of the authenticity of the information provided. Despite all that, a great economic impact has been witnessed due adoption of new technology in the industry since it has become a source of entertainment to many individuals. Creative industry policy evolved during the industrialization era. It has enhanced the economic output of many countries. The paradigm shifts are expected to affect culture both positively and negatively. The use of modern technology will limit the number of visitors to the physical exhibition sites and thus culture is likely to lose its original value. However, the digital cultural collection is likely to be viewed by a huge number of people due to technological continued evolution and cheap to access. References Bayne, S., Ross, J., & Williamson, Z. (2009). Objects, subjects, bits and bytes: learning from the digital collections of the National Museums. museum and society, 7(2), 110-124. Bertacchini, E., & Morando, F. (2013). The future of museums in the digital age: New models for access to and use of digital collections. International Journal of Arts Management, 15(2), 60-72. Boogh, E. (2013). Samtidsbild/Contemporary Images–A Method of Collecting Vernacular Photography in the Digital Age. Museum International, 65(1-4), 54-67. Bonn, M. A., Joseph-Mathews, S. M., Dai, M., Hayes, S., & Cave, J. (2007). Heritage/cultural attraction atmospherics: Creating the right environment for the heritage/cultural visitor. Journal of Travel Research, 45(3), 345-354. Casserly, M. (2002). Developing a concept of collection for the digital age. portal: Libraries and the Academy, 2(4), 577-587. Granham, N. (2001) From Cultural to Creative Industries: An analysis of the implication of the “creative industries” approach to arts and media policy making in the United Kingdom Accessed in October 2013O'connor, J. (2010). The cultural and creative industries: a literature review. Creativity, Culture and Eduction. Moore, I. (2014). Cultural and Creative Industries Concept–A Historical Perspective. Procedia-Social and Behavioral Sciences, 110, 738-746. Spiliopoulou, A. Y., Mahony, S., Routsis, V., & Kamposiori, C. (2014). Cultural institutions in the digital age: British Museum’s use of Facebook Insights. Participations, 11(1), 286-303. Stogner, M. B. (2009). The Media‐enhanced Museum Experience: Debating the use of Media Technology in Cultural Exhibitions. Curator: The Museum Journal, 52(4), 385-397. . Read More