Communication power, who has it?

November 5th, 2009

Paris riots

Well we did say Communities Dominate Brands! In an interview with Henry Jenkins he of Participatory Culture and Convergence Culture and even Transmedia storytelling fame, Maxime Cervulle for Poli, a French magazine of media and cultural theory. In response to Henry’s question about the return of Creative industries vs. Cultural industries, this is a portion of her response.

As we’ve seen, the power relations created around mass media, which formed the basis for many of our cultural theories, have been altered through the expansion of social networks and the increased visibility and centrality of participatory culture.This is not to say that commercial interests do not exert a strong influence over the communication environment. Of course, they do, but their power is no where near as totalizing as those classical accounts would suggest. This is not to say that these commercial interests do not seek to shape the hearts and minds of their consumers, but they are adopting rather different models of persuasion which depend upon our active participation and which are subject to our collective critique.

So, the most powerful reason to shift from talking about “culture industries” to ‘creative industries” is to signal that we need to question and challenge old assumptions and rethink old theories as we deal with some fundamental changes in the way media gets produced,circulated, and consumed in this era of convergence culture.

Other topics are the politics of creation, the politics of knowledge sharing, the digital divide and education, Cognitive capitalism, the Gift Economy and its implications in a sharing economy, (understanding the tensions which are now defining our economic and legal systems), and the issues of providing a voice to diverse groups.

It was Manuel Castells that said that the technology of our time is about what makes us human; conscious meaningful communication. Some like to call it Social Media, I suggest that it is something more profound than that. And Howard Rheingold informs us that its not 2.0 anything it is in fact technologies of cooperation that amplify human talents of collaboration.

Speaking at a media and marketing conference yesterday, I emphasised this point – in my view we are not going back to the way things used to be. Also, although the tools we deploy are digital, and although geeks get all lathered up about the technology, hence the name – geek, and the emphasis on 2.o. Our moment, this moment in history is not about technology per se, its about people. Sadly the point is lost on those massive organisations that want the old comfy cardy of locked down everything, back. But the reality is this – humans are meaning making creatures, and this communications revolution, as that is what it is, challenges 150 years of linear thinking, industrial frameworks and the thin slicing of humanity, that has deconstructed us almost to the point of deconstruction. Living for many means, living as a noisy ghost in the machine called life, whilst Charles Handy described us in the west consumed by consumption in a material quest for salvation, as hungry spirits.

That is why Communities Dominate Brands and that is why you should read this interview. It may be academic, but I think its worth the effort to dig into the issues raised as in fact it affects your job, and the job you might not have, and, the the new job you might be applying for.

Part [1] of Henry’s interview

SMLXL archives on identity

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