Introduction: Digital Cultural Politics

Abstract

The subject of this book is the changing landscape of cultural policy caused by digital communication and online cultural production, consumption and distribution. Selected cases are analysed in order to illustrate significant encounters between digital technologies, digital communications and cultural policy, and to place them in a broader theoretical spectrum within new directions in cultural policy research. Digital technologies and digital communication have been an integral part of our everyday lives for quite some time now. We are constantly connected to hardware, software and various interfaces through our use of computers, tablets and, of course, the smartphones that we frequently pull from our pockets as part of our daily rhythm of accessing and engaging with culture. We meet this culture encoded in digital form, as Manovich (2001) observed, when describing the language of new media, through cultural interfaces which facilitate our interactions with cultural data. It is not only the cultural interface which forms these interactions, however, as the communicative infrastructure, the technologies in question and their relationships to the wider issues of political economy, regulation and policy also play a crucial role in understanding these complex dynamics. It is certainly true that mobile and other pervasive media, ubiquitous computing, cloud computing, extended Wi-Fi services and advanced communication infrastructures, give citizens multiple ways to connect, interact, create and share. It is equally true, however, that all these digital activities, which are experienced spatially 2 both online and offline, leave traces of recognisable data that is used for various purposes. But what are the consequences in terms of cultural consumption and production when cultural items are digitised, and what are the cultural policy implications of these communication patterns? There is certainly no shortage of keywords that account for changes in both cultural and communicative processes, as well as alterations in production and consumption patterns. Some of these suggest emancipatory and empowering dimensions pushing the power balance in favour of citizens, while others point towards critical elements inherent in digital communication. The former are epitomised in concepts such as produsers and pro-dusage (Bruns 2008), prosumers (Toffler 1980), creative audience (Castells 2009), productive enthusiasts (Gauntlett 2011) and interactive audience (Jenkins 2006). The latter are concerned with privacy and surveillance capitalism (