BEYOND THE ’INFORMATION SOCIETY’: SELECTED ATOMS & BITS OF A NATIONAL STRATEGY IN IRELAND

.

Paschal Preston

Director COMTEC

Dublin City University, Glasnevin, Dublin 9, IRELAND

Tel. +353-1-704 5478

E-mail: PrestonP@dcu.ie

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Revised version of presentation to the Ireland in the European and Global ‘Information Society’ conference, held at the Irish Film Centre, Dublin, 24-25 April, 1997.

OUTLINE OF CONTENTS

1. Introduction

2. The limits of the ‘info society’ concept & info ‘superhighway’ metaphors.

3. Elements of an information sector/economy approach.

4. An overview of the Irish information sector/economy.

5. ‘Content Matters’: the ‘mature’ and new/multimedia industries

6. Towards a more coherent strategy for the ‘content’ sector

7. The role of social and economic research and new ICT in Ireland

1. INTRODUCTION

With perfect planning, and a little help from our friend, serendipity, this paper is being written for a conference taking place within a few weeks of the publication Irish government’s Information Society Steering Committee (ISSC) report: ‘Information Society Ireland: Strategy for Action’ (ISSC, 1997). The report places a great stress on the media and other information ‘content’ services and their future role in terms of job and wealth creation in Ireland. Since its publication, the report has led to a number of relatively rapid follow-up actions, including the announcement of the establishment of a more permanent Information Society (IS) Commission and the initiative to link the nation’s schools to the new electronic communications networks. These and other recent responses suggest that this is one policy report which will not merely sit on the shelves like many of its predecessors but one whose recommendations are likely to move to implementation stage in the near future. As it is likely to be an important guide and reference point for subsequent policy initiatives, and especially those related to new multimedia developments, the ISSC report deserves close and critical scrutiny.

The publication of the ISSC report also co-incides with two other important and related sets of policy proposals which have been published in recent months. The first includes the October 1996 White Paper on science and technology and the more recent appointment of a Science, technology and Innovation Advisory Council . Basically these and other related initiatives follow on from the STIAC report and they aim to develop a more coherent set of national technology and industrial innovation policies. Second, the ISSC report also closely follows the publication of ‘Clear Focus’ by the Department of Arts, Culture and the Gaeltacht. This document sets out the government’s proposals for new broadcasting structures and policies and explicitly seeks to respond to the changing economic role and policy environment of broadcasting activities, including some of the 114implications of convergence tendencies associated with new information and communication technologies (ICT).

This paper seeks to explore a number of key issues related to the direction and components of a coherent information sector strategy and more targeted national innovation networks in the Irish context, with a particular focus on the media and other ‘content’ services. In so doing, the paper will also provide a commentary on some issues raised in the recent ISSC report and their underlying conceptions or assumptions, especially those which directly concern the role and characteristics of the media and information content services. Like it counterparts elsewhere, the content of the ISSC document tends to be high on the rhetoric and hype usually associated with popular discussions of the implications of new ICTs and low in terms of the specificities of the economic, social and cultural dimensions. In contrast, this paper will seek to transcend some of the limitations of the analysis of the ISSC report by outlining a more grounded and concrete initial overview or mapping of the information economy and its policy implications in the Irish context. In other words, it will seek to move beyond the abstract realm of abstract vision to consider some of the more concrete nuts and bolts (or atoms and bits) of the information sector and related strategy debates in Ireland.

In addition, in this author’s view any coherent proposals for a future national information strategy must also be directly related to policy debates and initiatives concerning the direction of both industrial innovation and broadcasting policy initiatives. So far, there has been little attempt to relate these convergent industrial and policy fields within a coherent strategic framework in the Irish context. Hence, in what follows, I will also indicate some of the implications of the other recent national policy initiatives as they relate to the development of a more coherent information strategy, with particular reference to the media and ‘content’ sub-sectors. Thus, in summary, the key aims of this paper are to:

a) Consider the meaning and implications of the recent growth of national, EU and global information society and infrastructure initiatives for the future shape and contours of socio-economic and cultural development in Ireland. Here, I will briefly consider the validity and status of the ‘information’ society notion in relation to the pressing socio-economic issues and its role as a guide to policy analysis and strategy with respect to the media and information content sector in the Irish and EU contexts.

b) Provide an initial exploration of key features of the information sector/economy in Ireland in terms of its key component sub-sectors. Here the paper will seek to indicate some of the specific economic and industrial dimensions of the Irish information economy and some of its key sub-components and outline some of the key policy challenges. Given the paucity of independent research on socio-economic dimensions of new ICTs in the Irish context, this or any similar exploration remains at the very tentative and general level.

c) Consider some of the key implications of recent national and EU policy analyses and approaches related to the future role, development and regulation of one particular cluster of industries the information ‘content’ industries . The paper will focus on the mature media industries as well as the new/emergent multimedia fields which have been identified as potential rapid growth areas in many recent policy reports.

d) The final section of the paper will briefly touch upon some issues related to the organisation and purpose of this conference. It will indicate aspects of the important role of the social science research, especially in relation to economic and social dimensions of new ICTs, including the further development and implementation of a national information strategy in Ireland.

Because of time and space constraints, my treatment will be necessarily selective and will focus on employment and industrial development issues and on the specific socio-economic and institutional implications of new ICTs which appear most relevant to the Irish context. But, of course in so doing, I will have to touch upon the broader global developments, and especially the important role of the European Union’s IS project. Compared to most other member states, the EU context is critically important in any consideration of national information sector strategies in Ireland. Not only is it the crucial nexus in industrial and employment terms -- it has shaped the key developments in the information economy in Ireland over the past 10-20 years. But the EU policy context is also crucial to any understanding the development and orientation of most recent national policy initiatives in Ireland related to new ICTs and indeed any other aspects of the information economy.

2. LIMITS OF THE ‘INFO SOCIETY’ IDEA & INFO ‘SUPERHIGHWAY’ METAPHORS.

There is no need here to stress the increasing popularity of the ‘information society’ notion [and related information superhighway/infrastructure’ metaphors] within EU and more global policy debates over the past 3-4 years. But, the growing popularity of such notions must be greeted with a mixture of apprehension as well as a critical welcome. For however fashionable they have become, such notions and conceptions must be held up to critical scrutiny in terms of their adequacy as guides to understanding and action by politicians, industrialists and ordinary citizens. This is one of the important lessons of the work of many social scientists who have addressed the competing models and approaches to the socio-economic and policy implications of new information and communication technologies (ICTs) for some time.

Take the core notion of the ‘information society’, which as most of you know, was first advanced more than 20 years ago. It was thoroughly and sharply criticised by many researchers in the early 1980s, including some of the participants at this conference (e.g. Garnham, 1981; Melody, 1985; Bannon, 1981; Douglas and Guback, 1984).

For sure, there were many dimensions to this criticism of the ‘information society’ idea. But for present purposes, I will simply note the fact that many of the criticisms focused on:

a) The tendency to adopt a highly abstract and idealised analysis of the changing role, characteristics and implications of information and knowledge production, as well as its control, distribution and management in advanced capitalist economies; the notion involved a neglect of the important political, economic and institutional settings of information production, ownership rights, and management/control questions;

b) The reliance of very partial ethno-centric [socially and temporally-specific] assumptions about of what constitutes ‘information’ and ‘non-information’ work, occupations as well as social and cultural activities;

c) The lack of coherence and adequacy of this notion as a guide to a practical understanding the implications of new ICTs in the context of the key socio-economic and policy challenges of the early 1980s;

d) The availability of better/alternative more empirically and historically grounded models for examining the characteristics of the economic and social changes [and continuities] associated with the emergence and adoption of new ITs [e.g Preston, 1984a, 1984b; 1985a, 1985b].

But, of course, despite these earlier criticisms of many social scientists, the ‘information society’ notion is very much alive and well today. Indeed, as this conference testifies, it has become an ever more highly fashionable item on the menu of political rhetoric in the late 1990s. In the EU context, the ‘Information Society’ [with appropriate capitals] has been ascribed an enhanced role and status [and aura] as a central reference point for many if not most areas of policy debate and planning.

What does this mean? [apart from the clear reminder that we should not overestimate the power and influence of mere social scientists, despite the many robust claims about growing autonomy and power of such ‘knowledge workers’ in the info age]. For one thing, the popularity of the ‘information society’ idea amongst the political and economic elites in the late 1990s is a social and political fact that cannot be ignored. But does it mean that the previous criticisms of the concept have now been rendered invalid in the light of subsequent technological and socio-economic changes?

Here, in keeping with the reflexive and critical tradition of research in the social science and humanities fields, we must be prepared to question and look behind both:

(a) the surface and gloss of the fashionable conceptions, self-images and conventions of our times (however influential); and

(b) the adequacy of our existing theories, methods and models of inquiry in the light of socio-economic change and continuity.

Both these sets of questions leave plenty of scope for further debate at this conference and, indeed, in many other subsequent fora. Indeed I will begin this debate here. I do so by suggesting that, despite its increasingly pervasive and hegemonic role in current policy circles and debates, it is still valid and important for social and economic researchers to critically question and challenge the ‘information society’ notion.

This is not some question of scoring a mere academic point concerning the adequacy of different conceptual models of the nature of current changes [and continuities] in the social and economic landscape at the close of the twentieth century. Given the context, my argument here is primarily based on some pressing practical considerations-- and it is necessarily brief. It focuses on the practical adequacy and utility of the concept for policy-makers, industrialists, and especially, the vast majority of workers and citizens concerned with addressing the most pressing socio-economic and indeed cultural, issues of the day.

First, it is clear and beyond question that the past 20 years has witnessed the emergence and diffusion of an ever-growing cluster of radical new information and communication technologies. Cumulatively, and in combination with appropriate social and institutional innovations, these new technologies provide many opportunities for a radical restructuring of economic processes and the social cultural processes underlying everyday life outside the sphere of paid employment.

Secondly, it is also generally agreed that the economic and social structures and processes and policy challenges in the advanced capitalist industrial countries (ACCs) are very different in the mid-1990s compared to those prevailing the mid-1970s. Some of the highlights of these changes include:

a) The emergence of high-levels of unemployment in many advanced industrial economies, often matching those which prevailed in inter-war slump years;

b) A significant slowdown in measured productivity growth rates compared to those prevailing during the long post-war boom;

c) Increasing inequality in terms of the distribution of income and wealth and general life opportunities in many, if not most advanced industrial economies [often as the direct result of neo-liberal policy regimes]; this has been accompanied by an increasing marginalised ‘under-class’, growing social tensions, and rising prison populations in many ACCs;

d) There has been a rapid growth in some ICT and information service markets, at least in terms of output, but the vast majority of new employment opportunities in the ACCs have been located in low-tech and low-pay ‘service’ sector industries;

e) Expanding production and consumption of material goods [with short life-cycles] and continued exhaustion of limited resources, despite increasing awareness and rhetorical gestures towards ecological concerns;

f) The continued marketisation [commodification] and commercialisation of various forms of information resources and products, the expanding role of intellectual property rights, and growing pressures on the public information sphere [including increasing pressures on the industrialisation of university research activity];

g) At the international level, there has been: the growing globalisation of economic, social and cultural relations, including the expanded role of multinational corporations; the emergence of new industrial powers outside the traditional ‘North/West’ axis; the break-up of the USSR bloc and the end of the Cold War.

Yet, when we examine the ‘information society’ concept in the light of these two sets of changes, we find that it certainly engages directly and fully with the first only. It emphasises the [undoubted] importance of new ICTs and the products and services of related ‘high-tech’ sectors and their claimed benign impacts or implications in relation to key dimensions of change in the socio-economic landscape But it has relatively little to say about the second set of pressing socio-economic changes and the related challenges which they pose for citizens as well as policy-makers in the late 1990s. Indeed in concrete terms, many such social and economic problems cannot be addressed within the technology-centred [or abstract ‘information’ centred] assumptions which underpin the ‘information society’ notion. Essentially, these pressing socio-economic changes and challenges tend to be either ignored or treated as relatively minor ‘threats’ on a fundamentally benign and harmonious futuristic landscape. At best, they tend only to be recognised issues of potential [rather than actual] exclusion and issues which are re-defined as being related to a failure to adjust to technical change.

In essence, the ‘information society’ notion places an exaggerated emphasis on the inherent technical characteristics and benefits of new ICTs and it involves a very particular and technocratic vision of society and the processes of change. Its understanding of what constitutes ‘information’ [as good, service, resource] and knowledge and its relation to socio-economic wealth, welfare and well-being is very partial and specific. As an attempt to theorise socio-economic and cultural change, it starts off and ends up confusing ends [goals and values] with means. It is inherently focused on the pace and scale of production and adoption of information technologies, services and products. Whilst this may well help to further expand the sales and markets of new ICTs products and services and the related high-tech sector, it fails to address the wider public interest issues involved in developing a progressive strategy for macro socio-economic change and development in the ACCs at the close of the twentieth century. Its ultimately flawed and narrow ‘vision’ is marked by one key irony: on the one hand it extols the revolutionary power of new ICTs to transform social and economic relations and yet, on the other hand, it combines it with an extremely conservative set of political-economic and cultural orientations and values.

3. ELEMENTS OF AN INFORMATION SECTOR/ECONOMY APPROACH

One of the more practical problems with the information society notion is the real difficulty involved in seeking to apply or operationalise it for the purposes of empirical research or practical policy analysis. In brief, it is a flawed concept when it comes to concrete attempts to map and measure the contours of socio-economic change and continuities.

In this regard the concept of an information sector or economy can provide a more concrete and illuminating alternative in seeking to explore many key aspects of the socio-economic implications and historical specificity of new ICTs. It is also one which carries much less ideological baggage. This is particularly the case when it is combined with a more historically grounded conception of new ICT as a major new technology system within a neo-Schumpeterian ‘long waves’ approach (Preston, 1984a, Hall and Preston, 1988; Preston et al, 1989).

I believe that this particular reworking of the information sector/economy concept can provide a useful framework for many kinds of empirical inquiry and research addressing the strategic industrial and policy implications of new ICTs. It can be especially useful in exploring the blurring of industrial and policy boundaries related to product and process innovations which are linked to the diffusion of a major new technology system such as new ICT. It can be utilised to move beyond the rather singular and simplistic conceptions of ‘information’ industries and activities which are often implicit or explicit in many recent ‘information society’ policy documents and debates. In brief, the latter tend to lump together many industries and products with quite disparate characteristics and market structures etc.

I will apply this concept here in order to arrive at some initial strategic location of the media and ‘content’ industries in contemporary Ireland. But I believe that the kind of model proposed here can be fruitfully applied to many kinds of empirical investigations into the nature and extent of the new ‘convergence’ trends [and the important counter-tendencies] -- such as those related to the complex field of multimedia developments. It can also be applied in a manner which fully recognises that the material production still matters and that the socio-economic system still comprises atoms as well as bits [eg notion of the secondary info sector]. The application and potential benefits of this approach for research and policy purposes can be briefly indicated by referring to the left-hand column of Table 1. This outlines some of the basic but distinctive component sub-sectors which can be identified in such an information sector/economy approach.

Table 1 ‘Content’ Industries in the Overall ‘Information’ Economy and Potential for Irish Content Industries

NOTES: See Appendix Table 1.1 for more details of this model. This is a summary outline. SOURCES: Based on Preston, (1984b, 1985a, 1985b, 1995g, 1996a, 1996b); This particular typology is based on the author’s modifications to earlier models advanced by Machlup, Porat, OECD etc ..

4. AN OVERVIEW OF THE IRISH INFORMATION SECTOR/ECONOMY

In applying this model it is possible to outline an initial overview of Ireland’s position in relation to the basic components of the EU and more global information economy. Although the analysis must remain rather tentative at this stage, I suggest that it does provide a more grounded indication of the nuts and bolts (or ‘atoms and bits’) of the Irish information economy which goes beyond the rather abstract analysis provided in the recent ISIC report. The highlights of this initial review of the national information economy are indicated on the right-hand column of Table 1.

1A) INFO/COMMS. DEVICES, SYSTEMS: Overall Ireland has a relatively large ICT supply sector (component 1A in Table 1). In essence the percentage share of total employment provided by this particular high-tech sector in Ireland is 3-4 times the average share in all EU countries (Preston, 1995, 1996). But the vast majority of the jobs and output here are accounted for by inward investment by multinational corporations. In comparison, the performance of the indigenous industries has been relatively weak. In many ways this sector represents one of the major jewels in the IDA’s crown. It contributes to the 36% increase in permanent full time employment in the overall ‘metals and engineering’ sector achieved between 1986 and 1995 [from 59,415 to 80,929 jobs] (Forfas, 1996: Table 4). Yet too many of the jobs in these industries comprise rather routine assembly and packaging functions and fall far below the image of ‘high-level, grey-matter’ occupations.

1B) SPECIALISED ‘PRODUCER’ INFO SERVICES. This component of the national information economy is very currently very small and poorly developed in Ireland. It is also marked by a relatively low growth potential in Ireland for reasons summarised on the right-hand column of Table 1.

1C) COMMS/MEDIA OR CULTURAL INDUSTRIES [= MEDIA ‘CONTENT’ SERVICES]. These are perceived to possess high potential for growth, tradeability and commodification in many national, EU and global ISH strategy documents. I will address these particular industries and services in more detail in the next section of the paper.

1D) ‘HYBRID’ FINANCIAL, PROFESSIONAL ETC INFO SERVICES: These are the focus of many claims about ‘new ICT-based growth service industries’. Some of these hybrids are said to be increasing their ‘tradability’ via the impact of new ICTs (e.g. some offer significant ICT ‘applications innovation’ opportunities, [e.g. via new Internet-based technologies]. Many of these types of services have been highlighted in the ISSC report and they have also been targeted in recent IDA initiatives focused on internationally traded services (including the International Financial Services Centre). Data from Forfas suggests that there has been a fairly rapid growth in international and financial services in more recent years (Table 2). The ISSC and other recent reports suggest that there may be some scope for indigenous innovation, especially in services with existing indigenous industrial competencies and strength [e.g. in banking; medical; etc. fields],

Table 2: INTERNATIONALLY TRADED & INTERNAT. FINANCIAL SERVICES (Permanent full-time employment, 1986 and 1995) Source: Forfas, 1996: pp.9.

Source: Fofas, 1996: pp. 9.

It appears that some of the growth of ‘telemarketing’ activities may also be included under this heading. But it should be noted that many of the jobs in telemarketing fall far below the image and status of high-tech or high-skill or high-pay jobs usually associated with this sector.

2) THE SECONDARY INFO SECTOR [SIS]

Although it is beyond our scope to discuss the matter here in any depth, the SIS serves to underline the fact that the real economic world is still made up of atoms as much as bits. It underlines continuing importance of primary, manufacturing and other material handling sectors in the approaching 21st century economy

A RADICAL RE-ORIENTATION OF POLICY TOWARDS THE PIS

On the face of it, this cursory and still rather tentative review suggests that the primary information economy in Ireland has expanded significantly over the past decade, and especially the ICT supply industries sector. And, in keeping with the increasingly popular self-image of Ireland as the ‘Celtic Tiger’ , there have been many promises that this will continue to expand rapidly in the future. This is also the broad thrust of the analysis advanced by the ISSC (1997) report which stresses that there are indeed many ‘ICT-based growth sector opportunities’ for further job creation in the short and medium term future (e.g. ISSC, 1997: Table 5.2).

But, of course, the continued global growth and development of new ICTs [or other technologies] does not necessarily guarantee that new opportunities for product and process innovation will automatically flow to the Irish economy. Here it is necessary to stress that, despite the undoubted successes measured in terms of job creation and output growth in more recent years, Ireland’s ICT supply sector is particularly weak in terms of indigenous product innovation. By this measure, it is still a rather timid cat or kitten some of the other industrial ‘tigers’ which have roared or ‘leapfrogged’ onto the world’s ICT stage in recent times. Thus it is important to stress and note here that there are a number of important technology and industrial policy challenges which have to be addressed more fully (e.g. compared to the analysis in the ISSC report) if these potential opportunities are to be realised. A sober analysis of the future development and expansion prospects of the ICT supply sector and related hybrid or producer services suggests that national policymakers should be guided by the image of the ‘Celtic Cat’ rather than that of the ‘Celtic Tiger’ .

Overall, the sustained rapid growth of the primary information sector in Ireland will require a radical re-orientation of state industrial policy towards key components of the sector and their linkage to new national innovation support initiatives. Such shifts in strategy are necessary if policies are to seriously diminish the still unacceptably high levels of employment prevailing in the Irish economy and to provide the labour force with the kinds of jobs which best match its skills, competencies and expectations.

Here in particular, I wish to stress two things. First of all, there is the need to link a national information sector strategy towards a radical review and re-orientation of overall national industrial policy goals centred on the promotion and development of indigenous innovation potential. I do not claim any novelty in this proposal for the weak industrial and innovation performance has been frequently identified as the Achilles heel of Irish industrial development story over the course of the past three decades. Despite the recent successes of the inward investment policies, it continues to be very relevant and pertinent as we approach the new millennium. I believe that there are pressing reasons to re-assert the importance of indigenous innovation, especially if the goal is to promote the continued expansion of the primary information sector industries in future years. Secondly, the new policy structures and initiatives must be attuned to the specific economic characteristics and socio-cultural roles of the various sub-components of the primary information sector, and particularly those of the media and cultural ‘content’ industries.

In brief, despite (and perhaps because of) its past and indeed continuing successes, the policy stress on ‘inward investment’ has to be reviewed in the light of the rapidly changing European and global environment for investment and trade, especially with respect to the ICT-supply sector as well as changing national conditions. For example:

a) In the context of the new globalism and short product life cycles (especially in the increasingly important software segments), the new ICT supply sector is becoming increasingly locationally mobile and diversified; besides Ireland’s traditional locational advantages for the ICT sector are being increasingly replicated in other European and global locations;

b) Despite continuing and expensive state incentives, the Irish economy no longer provides the relatively low-cost conditions which prevailed in the 1970s or 1980s;

c) The Irish labour force is becoming increasingly highly educated and skilled and changing consumption norms are leading to increasing expectations of high pay in high-value added jobs; These and other developments all point to the need for a greater policy emphasis on indigenous innovation for the PIS and other industrial sectors in the Irish economy of the late 1990s. This is not a call for some sort of narrow industrial nationalism. Rather it involves the need for new, sophisticated and pro-active forms of indigenous firm-based innovation, including appropriate forms of collaboration, networking and other inter-firm relations between local firms and MNCs. It involves the development of new national innovation institutions and brokerage systems in line with changing configurations of local capabilities and competencies, including the elusive matter of entrepreneurship. At, the same time, it requires a more pro-active approach to the shaping of the spectrum of policies fields within the EU [and more global policy making arenas] which directly impinge upon the opportunity structures for indigenous firm innovation and industrial performance, especially those based in the primary information sector.

I will now move on to explore some of the implications of this approach with respect to one particular component of the primary information economy: the media and communications ‘content’ services.

5. ‘Content Matters’: the IRISH MEDIA & cultural ‘content’ industries

For some time now, these industries have been perceived to be marked by a relatively high potential for growth and tradeability (or marketability or commodification) as a result of new ICTs (eg. Toffler, 1980, 1983; ITAP, 1983, 1986; GLC, 1983; CICI/RIIA, 1986). In the context of more recent information infrastructure and ‘information society’ initiatives, this has been re-emphasised in many national, EU and global strategy documents (CEC, 1994a, 1994b, 1994c; Australia, 1994, 1994b, 1995; Canada, 1994).

THE ISSC REPORT AND ‘THE CONTENT SECTOR’

The recent report of the ISSC also places a major emphasis on these industries in the Irish context. It states that ‘one growth sector deserving particular attention is that of the content industry’ (ISSC, 1997:42). The report defines the sector as comprising film, music, radio, publishing, and advertising.

The ISSC report suggests that this is already a significant sector in Ireland in terms of employment (‘already over 30,000 are employed’) and output (more than £1 billion annually) and it further suggests that ‘this value can be increased several-fold’ (ISSC, 1997: 42). The report goes on to claim that the “content industry in the Information Society involves the creation of products and services that aggregate (sic) music, audio-visual and information/data services, drawing on Ireland’s culture and heritage, using digital delivery technology and skills” (ibid: 42).

The ISSC claims that “significant opportunities will arise for adding value in such areas a localisation and adaptation of such new digital products and services as, in general, content is most attractive when it is local. (Recent examples of this are the success of Riverdance and the film Michael Collins)” (ISSC, 1997:42). It declares that Ireland’s youthful, educated, English- speaking population is a crucial advantage in this global industry. Furthermore it argues that “Ireland has internationally recognised abilities in the conception, creation and generation stages of content production”, especially in literature and music and increasingly in film/video (ISSC, 1997: 42). It proposes that Irish enterprises ‘must develop a leadership position in key growth areas such as the content industry’ (ISSC, 1997: 58).

6. COMPONENTS OF A MORE ADEQUATE STRATEGY FOR THE MEDIA AND CULTURAL INDUSTRIES

In general the ISSC report generally provides a very optimistic and upbeat account of the past and potential future growth and performance of the media and cultural industries sub-sector in Ireland. Such optimism, based on a rather abstract and idealised reading of the opportunities afforded by new technologies is not confined to the Irish report. Indeed it is generally the norm and convention in national reports of this kind. But a more focused and grounded analysis, which addresses the strengths and weaknesses of the sector is required. This is especially the case if appropriate policies and support systems are to be developed and implemented in the future in order to realise the goal of rapid job growth promised in the report.

Overall , the ISSC report presents a very optimistic view of the strengths and growth potential of the media and cultural industries , the ISSC report does register one apparent sectoral weakness however . It notes that the ‘Irish content providers and creators have only limited experience in exploiting new channels such as the Internet and multimedia’ (ISSC, 1997: 42). But the identified weakness is a technology-centred one --which again is typical of the analysis underpinning this and many similar information strategy policy reports. However, this lack of experience of new/emergent media is hardly unique to the Irish industry, especially since very few of the CD-ROM based multimedia content products produced (including those produced with major subsidies within the EU) have yet proved to be commercially successful. Indeed, apart from pornographic services, very few of the Internet/WWW ‘content’ service offerings produced in the EU or USA have not achieved the stage of commercial success either.

By many of the available indicators, the ISSC report may well be regarded as essentially accurate in its stress on the performance of Irish authors, musicians and artists in the initial creative (origination) stages of the value-added chain in the media and cultural industries. But the report is marked by a significant silence concerning a very important long-established weakness in national performance in relation to other moments of the overall value-added chain in the cultural and media content industries.

Here I am referring to the general and long-established failure to follow-through and harness the potential of these undoubted achievements in the creative moments in relation to the all-important ‘downstream’ high-value added functions and labour-intensive occupations [including job creation] in most if not all the established Irish media and cultural industries. For well over a century, the celebrated performance of Irish writers, for example, has not been ‘exploited’ for job and wealth creation in the downstream fields of publishing, printing, marketing and distribution, for example. Turning the focus away from a predominantly technology-centred approach, it is first of all, both possible and important to recognise that Irish content industries have very ‘limited experience in exploiting’ the creative performance of Irish content originators [writers, musicians] within the old channels of print-based publishing and distribution, as well as in the fields of film, television and recorded music . This fact, and its underlying reasons, must be more fully addressed and analysed. This is an essential step before cultural entrepreneurs or policy-makers can move on to successfully embark on the road to ‘exploiting the new channels such as the Internet and multimedia’ as suggested in the ISSC report ( 1997:42 ).

The underlying causes of this weak performance in the past cannot be primarily defined as technical in nature. Nor, even in the case of new multimedia content products and services [especially if defined in terms of process as well as product innovations], can they be addressed and remedied by a purely technology-centred analyses and policy responses. The policy and industrial challenges I am pointing to here are very important , if little understood in the Irish context as yet. They are central to any viable and sustainable strategy for the Irish content sector, whether this is focused on emergent new multimedia content industries or the more established media content sectors, or -- which seems indisputably preferable to this author-- both. They involve much more than mere questions about awareness of, training in, or exploitation of new technologies, important though these may be.

A) At one level, they pose important research and strategic policy questions concerning the matter of entrepreneurship, managerial, marketing and other [non-technical] competencies and skills related to the development of media and cultural content industries in the Irish context. They also concern the matter of how these may play an important role in the fuller exploitation of the potential of indigenous creative/origination efforts for wealth and job creation within both home and overseas markets and in the case of both mature and new/emergent media markets.

B) At another level, they require a comprehensive approach to addressing the peculiar economic [political-economic] characteristics and policy structures which have marked the media and cultural content industries in the past as well as in the 1990s. Important concerns here include the role of cultural ‘proximities’ and affinities as opposed to purely economic factors in shaping the scale and form of market boundaries, the key role of distribution bottlenecks, and the strong tendencies towards monopoly/oligopoly structures at global, regional and national levels.

C) They also involve a serious consideration of the very specific social and cultural characteristics and roles of media/cultural products and services; this includes the potential role of new ICTs in enhancing and sustaining the continuing value of cultural pluralism and diversity in the content spheres.

These kinds of considerations point to important gaps in the analysis advanced by the ISSC report concerning the content industries. This is in keeping with the drift of the most influential EU policy documents --and indeed other national ‘info society’ strategy documents --at least as far as they conceptualise the role or potential growth of the mature and new/emergent media/cultural info ‘content’ industries.

This conceptual and analytical weakness is equally striking in EU and many other policy approaches to the media and cultural industries produced within the ‘info society’ framework. The media and cultural content sectors are generally treated within a singular and undifferentiated ‘information market’ and industrial logic --- alongside microchips, computers, telephone systems and other ICT hardware and software tools and systems (Preston, 1995a, 1995b, 1996a, 1996b, 1996c, 1996d).

The IS concept [especially as it underpins the analysis within the most influential EU policy documents] puts the technological cart before the social or cultural horse - despite the token and superficial rhetorical stress on ‘society’ and ‘People First’ in many of the key documents and surrounding discourses. For example, a similar neglect of the specificities of the cultural and media sphere can be found in the EC’s 1996 Green Paper on social dimensions of the ‘info society’ . This despite at least some tentative recognition of the specificity of content matters and the challenges posed for cultural diversity and within the interim report of the High Level Group of Experts (HLEG, 1996).

SOME SPECIFIC POLICY RECOMMENDATIONS

Given the pressures of time and space, I must now move from this all too brief consideration of the more conceptual and analytical issues in order to indicate some of their implications for a more coherent policy debate related to the new and mature media content industries in Ireland. Here, I wish to propose a number of related but quite specific recommendations for the policy debate and actions which are expected to follow from the publication of the ISSC report.

1) A key requirement is the creation of more coherent and comprehensive policy fora and structures which can address both (a) the convergence tendencies across traditional media and policy boundaries, and (b) the specificity of the media and cultural content services; [the recent legislative proposals for broadcasting go some way in this direction, but a more radical reorientation is proposed here];

2) The [currently disparate] activities and goals of government departments and agencies concerned with both (a) industrial and innovation policy on the one hand and (b) cultural and media policy on the other must be brought into greater dialogue and cross-engagement.

3) Appropriate new national policy institutions to support new configurations and forms of innovation networking , brokerage and linkages between the disparate components of the media/cultural industries sector. These are required, especially (but not only) to promote and realise the potential of new/emergent multimedia products and services.

4) There is a pressing need to develop more pro-active and comprehensive national approaches to shaping the disparate range of EU policies which impinge upon the media and cultural industries (especially those based in a relatively small economy/society). This involves active engagement in the whole spectrum of relevant policy fora, not only those which explicitly or solely address media and cultural policy issues [e.g. those dealing with competition and trade policy, technology and standards matters related to the new distribution systems such as the Internet/WWW, digital broadcasting etc]

5) The EC’s singular information society/market approach must be challenged and reversed not only for [very valid] cultural diversity and pluralism reasons. This is also necessary in employment terms --if the declared goals of significant increases in the numbers of ‘high-level, grey-matter’ jobs within the audio-visual and other media industries are to be realised.

7. THE ROLE OF SOCIAL & ECONOMIC RESEARCH ON NEW ICTs

This paper has sought to move beyond some of the technology centred and abstract information centred analyses of the information society discourses. It sought to highlight some of the challenges facing the further development and realisation of the potential growth of key elements of the primary information sector in Ireland, especially the media and cultural industries ‘content’ sub-sector, and the specifics of the national socio-economic and institutional context.

For reasons of space and time it has mainly focused on some of the industrial and economic development issues and thus it has neglected many of the other important social and cultural issues posed by the EU’s information society project and the recent ISSC report.

This paper is based on the view that new ICTs represent a major new technology system with many implications for economic change and industrial development, including that within the media and other content sectors. The balances between the opportunities and challenges for the future development of the Irish economy and society (even those closely linked with the application and use of new ICTs) are not solely or mainly determined by some technological logic. Nor can they be simply read-off the characteristics of the new technologies. Rather they require a specific (and more detailed) investigation centred on the specific national socio-economic and cultural institutions, structures and policies, as well as an assessment of particular competencies and capacities.

The paper has argued that the past performance of the Irish economy in relation to jobs and wealth creation within the various stages of the media and cultural industries has been rather uneven. It has been comparatively high in the initial creative and authorship stages of the value-added chain but relatively poor in the important ‘downstream’ stages which are the most important sites for job and wealth creation in these industries. Neither the explanation for this uneven performance, nor its resolution, can be found in technology-centred analyses. Rather it requires a research approach which can address the specific economic, socio-cultural and policy factors--as well as the technological factors-- which have shaped successful innovation and industrial growth in these industries in the past. A similar approach is required if private and public initiatives are to succeed in maximising the job and wealth creation potential of these industries, including the important technological opportunities now opening up in the emerging new multimedia fields.

But, compared to other countries, the resources available in Ireland for research on the specific national economic, socio-cultural and policy dimensions of new ICTs has been almost non-existent. Of course this is part of a wider problem of an minimal resource base for all kinds of social science research compared to most other EU member states.

In recent years, Irish policy makers have placed an increasing focus on the importance of scientific and technical research for the future realisation of national development goals. But the recent enthusiasm for technology matters must not result in a simplistic technological determinist approach to economic and social development. If the policy goals of a developing information economy in Ireland and the creation of ‘employment, wealth and vibrant, inclusive communities’ (ISSC, 1997: iii) are to be realised, then the important role of social science research in informing national development debates and strategies must be recognised as well. This means that social and economic research, in this and other fields, must be accorded both (a) a higher status and increased resources compared to the past and (b) an expanded role that is more closely line with that which prevails in other EU member states.

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