HMKK03246U Digital Cultures & Cultural Policy

This course will discuss different aspects of digital networked cultures and how these relate to cultural policy. Digital media and digital communication shape everyday cultural manifestations in various ways; on social media, in practical micro coordination, online gaming, dissemination of cultural events, etc. Digital communications do therefore affect notions such as users, consumers, producers, amateurs and professionals galvanizing processes that can be shaped in terms of emancipation and empowerment, or colonization and exploitation. These processes have interesting implications to the field of cultural policy and the aim of this course is to scrutinize these from different angles.

Amongst topics and concepts that will be theorised, exemplified and discussed are the network society, digital public spheres, cultural-, media-, and communication policies, remix cultures, intellectual property, digital labour, DIY cultures, social media, big data, digitization of cultural heritage, gaming and digital arts. Attention will also be given to converging regulatory frameworks generated by digital communication and how cultural policy relates to questions of digital inequality, information politics, privacy, surveillance, digital identities and economy.

Questions that will be posed and discussed include: What is user-generated content and how does that relate to copyrights, digital labour and professional cultural workers and artists? How is privacy policy, data use policy, and rights and terms framed by Google, Facebook, Instagram, Diaspora and Ello? Why is participation an important concept within cultural policy and how does it relate to the notion of online participatory cultures? How does technology frame user-manoeuvrability and how does this relate to policy, governance, ownership and business models? How do cultural institutions make use of digital media and how does this relate to local cultural policies? How does Spotify relate to local music markets? Which challenges does a service like Netflix impose on the field of cultural policy?