Davies and Sigthorsson (2013) - What are the Creative Industries?

Vocabulary flashcards defining key terms, theoretical concepts, policy history, and statistical data from Davies and Sigthorsson (2013) Chapter 1: What are the Creative Industries?

Platform

A technology or system that enables or allows other technologies or systems to work, acting as stacked technological, social, and cultural bases that facilitate diverse activities and behaviors.

Media Convergence

The coming together of previously separate kinds of media into a new medium, particularly evident in digital media that combine sound, image, text, and video with enhanced interactivity and audience participation.

Convergence Culture

A concept described by Henry Jenkins (2008) characterized by an emerging media environment where users expect to interact with, manipulate, and share media socially across multiple channels.

Production Chain (General)

The sequential process of creation, production, distribution, and consumption through which cultural products pass, involving specialized contributions from various individuals and organizations.

Production Chain (Andy Pratt 2007)

A specialized formulation describing the situated nature of cultural production encompassing markets, technologies, organization, and regulatory regimes (governance).

Creative Industries (John Hartley 2005)

A concept combining and radically transforming two older terms—the creative arts and the cultural industries—by bringing the arts directly into contact with large-scale media entertainment markets.

Creative Industries (DCMS 1998a)

Industries that have their origin in individual creativity, skill, and talent, and which have a potential for wealth and job creation through the generation and exploitation of intellectual property.

Culture as Value

An understanding of culture referring to prized cultural artifacts, educational practices, elevated artistic qualities, or refined sensibilities that signify distinct worth or distinction.

Culture as a "Way of Life"

An understanding of culture defined by Williams (1985) and Bennett et al. (2005) as the shared practices, habits, and daily behaviors of a given group identified by location, language, religion, or ethnicity.

Culture as a Resource

A concept identified by George Yúdice (2003) where culture serves various social, economic, and political ends, requiring specific forms of cultural and emotional labor to convert into commodities.

Policy

Rules or guidelines established to direct the actions and decisions of individuals within institutions, organizations, or governments to steer processes and remove subjective bias or ad hoc decision-making.

Creative Industries Policy

A public policy domain guiding how state resources, institutions, and taxpayers' money are utilized to intervene in, shape, or economically support the creative industries sector.

Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS)

The UK government department that, beginning in 1998 under New Labour, categorized 13 distinct creative sectors to measure employment, business density, export value, and GVA contribution.

Gross Value Added (GVA)

An economic statistic measuring the total value added by workers in a specific sector to the total value produced during one year for a national economy.

Cool Britannia

A term associated with critics (Oakley 2004; Garnham 2005) regarding the UK New Labour government's late-1990s policy strategy that rebranded traditional arts funding into commercial creative industry sectors.

Market Failure Rationale

The traditional justification used by non-commercial performing arts to obtain public subsidies on the grounds that essential cultural activities cannot survive solely on commercial market returns.

1990 Broadcasting Act

UK legislation imposing an independent production quota on licence fee-funded broadcasters (such as the BBC, ITV, and Channel 4), leading to widespread outsourcing of television production.

Casualising Creativity

A term used by Georgina Born (2004) to describe the structural shift in British television from permanent staff employment to widespread freelance contract work following the 1990 Broadcasting Act.

Exit Through the Gift Shop

A 2009 documentary film by graffiti artist Banksy that mocks how art galleries fashion themselves as commercial branded destinations complete with cafés, restaurants, and merchandise gift shops.

Three Approaches to Studying Creative Industries

The main analytical framework combining the measurement of economic data (GVA and jobs), analysis of market dynamics (uncertainty and consumer fickleness), and investigation of creative labor (daily worker experiences).

Platform

A technology or system that enables or allows other technologies or systems to work.

Media Convergence

The process when previously separate kinds of media come together in a new medium, particularly in digital media bringing together sound, image, text, and video.

Convergence Culture

A concept formulated by Henry Jenkins (2008) characterized by users' expectation that they will be able to interact with, manipulate, and share media socially.

Production Chain

The process of creation, production, distribution, and consumption where a creative product passes along a chain of contributing individuals and organizations.

Production Chain (Andy Pratt's definition)

A term used by Andy Pratt (2007) to describe the situated nature of cultural production in terms of markets, technologies, organization, and regulatory regimes (governance).

Cultural Industries

An older concept that mostly applies to the production of cultural goods like fine art, literature, theatre, music, radio, film, and television.

Creative Industries (Hartley's concept)

A concept that combines and radically transforms two older terms—creative arts and cultural industries—bringing the arts into direct contact with large-scale media entertainment industries.

Culture as Value

One understanding of culture indicating that something has worth, referring to prized cultural artefacts, practices of mind cultivation, aesthetic qualities, or sensibilities.

Culture as a Way of Life

An understanding of culture referring to the shared practices, habits, location, language, religion, or ethnicity of a given group of people (Williams 1985).

Culture as a Resource

A concept identified by Yúdice (2003) where culture serves a variety of social, economic, and political ends.

Cultural Labour

The specialized forms of work required to convert cultural resources into cultural commodities, such as the emotional labour in handling participants on reality-TV programs.

Policy

Rules or guidelines meant to serve decisions and actions of individuals within institutions (governments, organizations, businesses) to steer actions and remove subjective bias or ad hoc decisions.

Creative Industries Policy

A type of public policy guiding how the state uses its resources, institutions, and taxpayers' money to intervene in, shape, or affect the creative industries as a sector.

Creative Industries (DCMS 1998a definition)

Those industries that have their origin in individual creativity, skill, and talent, and which have a potential for wealth and job creation through the generation and exploitation of intellectual property.

Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS)

The UK government department established under New Labour in 1997 that identified 13 categories under the creative industries heading in 1998.

Gross Value Added (GVA)

A statistical measure used to estimate how much value workers in each creative sector add to the total value-added produced for the UK economy as a whole.

Cool Britannia

A term associated with criticisms of the UK New Labour government's 1998 creative industries policy rebranding attempt to secure increased funding for the arts.

Market Failure Argument

The traditional argument that no-/low-profit performing arts are essential cultural activities that cannot survive commercially without state subsidy.

1990 Broadcasting Act

UK legislation that imposed an independent production quota on licence fee-funded broadcasters (BBC, Channel 4, ITV), leading to the casualisation of creativity across the media industry.

Casualising Creativity

A structural shift described by Georgina Born (2004) where UK television employment transitioned from predominantly staff jobs in 1979 to around 45 per cent freelance work by the late 1990s.

Three Approaches to Studying the Creative Industries

An analytical framework that examines the creative industries through economic data, creative industries markets, and creative labour.

Markets for Creative Products

Markets characterized by high uncertainty due to fluctuating tastes, fashions, economic and technological changes, and the fickleness of the public.

Creative Labour Approach

A study method focusing on interviewing creative workers about their day-to-day experiences, working conditions, and local contexts.

UK Creative Industry Employment (2010)

Official estimates indicating approximately 1.5 million people were employed in the UK creative industries in 2010, led by Music & Visual & Performing Arts.

Creative Industry Firm Size Distribution

Official estimates (Skillset and CCSkills 2011) showing 84% of creative companies are small (fewer than 10 people) and only 2% are large (100 people and more).