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KULMEDIA-Kultur- og mediesektoren

Digitization and Diversity - Potentials and challenges for diversity in the culture and media sector

Alternative title: Digitalisering og mangfold - muligheter og utfordringer for mangfoldet i kultur- og mediesektoren

Awarded: NOK 14.7 mill.

Project Number:

247602

Application Type:

Project Period:

2015 - 2020

Funding received from:

Partner countries:

The consequences of digitization for diversity are ambivalent and complex; new services and platforms are at once increasing and decreasing diversity. Techno-cultural diversity has definitely increased since the start of digitization; new technological formats and an ever richer infrastructure have enabled several new business models for cultural services and platforms, which in turn has increased the number of distribution channels (distribution diversity) and the supply of cultural products (aesthetic-expression/ content diversity). Online consumption takes place at home or anywhere, and it is often cheaper and more convenient than visiting physical venues (shops, cinemas, museums, libraries etc.), which in turn can democratize consumption and increase both cultural identity, consumer and usage diversity (demographic diversity), which our main findings have shown. So far, so good. Digging deeper into the diversity dimensions, new dilemmas occur. Commercial digital services (as Amazon, Spotify etc.) distribute an enormously expanded supply of cultural products and this has taken many markets to the precipice of consumer confusion or overchoice. Algorithms help consumers navigate in the new landscape (and to sell ads), leading to personalized recommendations, which in turn may dramatically reduce content diversity. Our findings show that the majority of the digitized Norwegian population have no or low awareness of algorithms and how they work, and thus have little or no ability to influence the recommendations consciously. Public services / platforms (libraries, museums, radio, television), which do not have the ability to collect consumer data for privacy reasons, have no ability to compete with the personalized recommendations of the commercial services, which consumers increasingly expect to be served. This is creating a risk of reduced usage of these services. On the other hand, public services' strength is that they offer a variety of national content, which does not necessarily exist elsewhere, and therefore are important as providers of national cultural heritage (content and cultural diversity). National digital platforms reach significantly fewer users than global platforms, but our surveys show that the National Library's bookshelf project and digitaltmuseum.no, contribute to both content diversity, demographic diversity and usage diversity (how they use the online objects) for users. In addition to more professional museum related use, the presence of private hobbies usage was significant, as was interest in participation and interaction on the platform. The services are new distribution channels with features that have much in common with universal design, beneficial to people who, for various reasons, do not have the opportunity to visit the institutions. The digital distribution also has geographical benefits for a country with significant distances between the public institutions. Digitization of the whole cinema infrastructure (from film roll to file) in Norway permitted more flexible programming and better utilization of the movie theatres, including more daytime performances. It also resulted in increase in consumption of both American and Norwegian blockbusters, and increase in the numbers of movie titles from minority cultures in the population (content and demographic diversity) ? an unintended consequence of the new digital infrastructure in cinemas. Local newspapers have been successful in transforming newspaper subscribers into digital subscribers without the paper newspaper consumption being cannibalized. Both media elements therefore are found to help maintain local diversity. Local news interest is significant, and one in three uses the digital edition of their local newspaper to keep up to date on local matters, while approximately half use Facebook for the same purpose even though they have low confidence in this medium. Many newspaper readers are not prepared to pay for online news, which has also resulted in fewer reading local news online. This is especially true among younger people, those with low income, and those not interested in local news. This is leading to less demographic diversity. In the ongoing rapid digitization process in the creative industries, law and culture and media policy have been lagging behind technological developments, for example, copyright issues and piracy, which reduced willingness to pay and threatened content diversity. In a legal analysis, we see that digitization has given Norwegian copyright holders tougher framework conditions than that experienced by equivalent copyright holders in Sweden and especially Denmark due to the way in which international copyright is implemented in Norwegian legislation. Both implementation and common law make Norwegian enforcement expensive, and thus the copyright protection becomes more formal than real for many Norwegian licensees.

Hovedfunn og analyser har potensielle virkninger i flere forskningsfelt, deriblant kulturledelse, medier og kommunikasjon, kulturøkonomi, juss, kulturforbruk, kunsthistorie, bibliotek- og museumsstudier. Videre har en rekke resultater fra både surveys og casestudier potensielle virkninger og effekter for bransjeaktører i kultur- og mediesektoren. Mange av resultatene og analysene kan også ha potensielle effekter i kulturpolitisk sammenheng, og vi har ved mange anledninger presentert hovedfunn og implikasjoner i Kulturdepartementet. Flere av analysene om digitalisering av kultur- og mediesektoren kan også ha potensielle effekter utover spesifikke fag- politikk- og bransjemiljøene.

This project unites researchers from BI (the Norwegian Business School), Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), the National Library of Norway and the University of Copenhagen to explore how public and private digitization initiatives have challenged various forms of diversity affecting the infrastructure of the public sphere. The interrogations are carried out through four work packages covering four different but related areas within the culture and media sector: 1) libraries and the book industry, 2) museums and e-collections, 3) the film industry, 4) journalism and the newspaper industry. Comparisons to international players will be important as examples of how private and public initiatives as well as national and international initiatives become entangled. Social media will be analyzed as a player in the digitization circulation in these industries. Exploring four different culture and media industries and their users also gives us a unique opportunity to trace similarities and differences between them. Digitization is understood as both new technological opportunities, such as converting physical products into files, algorithms and big data, and as social change in everyday life, institutions and policy conditions. Diversity is applied within five distinct and, at times, overlapping dimensions: 1) An aesthetic-expression dimension (form and content), 2) a cultural identity dimension (national, regional, multicultural), 3) a user, participation and consumer dimension, 4) a dimension of dissemination channels and 5) a techno-cultural dimension (digital formats, programs and tools). The opportunities and challenges involved in digitization are explored through a variety of theoretical and methodological approaches: Media studies, economics and business studies, sociology and cultural policy research.

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Funding scheme:

KULMEDIA-Kultur- og mediesektoren

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