Creative Class
The shifts over recent decades in economic orientation, political processes and educational opportunities have influenced how and what work is done. Indeed, economic shift from manufacturing into service, political mechanisms from exclusive government control into community engagement and participation and educational offerings from institution-based into independent and lifelong learning mode – all has made possible an emergence of a new class of creative workers.
If anything, creative workers can be working (or not) in a creative industry or can be creatively occupied (or not) in a creative industry. For example, all workers employed in a creative industry organization (including security guards, for example) are said to be creative workers. Conversely, all workers offering creative services (e.g. independent content developers) but are not employed in a creative industry organization can be said to be creative workers. Notably, creative workers are shown to prefer being in vibrant, urban centers marked by frequent, rich encounters between like-minded workers.
Creative Industry
Driven by service, knowledge and culture, a creative industry is characterized by intensive utilization of innovative capacities in order to deliver value to one or more economic activities. In so doing, jobs are created by launching new projects, services and/or start-ups employing people in areas beyond conventional job market offerings.
If anything, creative industry has been brought into particular spotlight in response to emerging ICT platforms and applications. The rise of computer systems as part of day-to-day work and social activities has, indeed, made possible an emergence of a broad range of creative pursuits and/or lending further dimensions to established creative industries. The emergence of offshore software development jobs represents an example of a line of creative work made possible by web-mediated communications. The completion of a software development project is made possible by a request from, say, a U.S.-based company to a Bangalore, India-based developer. For more established creative industries, e.g. music, a monumental growth in digital distribution channels (web- or disc-based) has made possible reinventing music genres (by remixing music offerings now available in one or limited platforms in abundance) and sharing music products, as never before, across social media platforms.
This growth in creative industries is marked, however, by a growing digital divide between have-lots and have-nots. As Internet broadband connections, a critical requirement for using web-mediated communication channels, communities having more access to faster connections (and hence more knowledge base offered increasingly online) are more likely to reap most benefits of exploding growth in digital communication platforms and applications compared to have-nots. This divide cuts across different geographies and is not limited to developing countries as is commonly perceived. Indeed, rural areas in U.S. Midwest are shown, for example, to have less access to faster Internet connections (and hence knowledge and creative work) compared to more "connected" urban centers in service-oriented communities.
New Media & Post-Industrial Economy
In contrast to conventional media (including, most notably, TV, radio and in-print newspapers and publications), new media forms (including, most notably, social media platforms) are assuming more significance in shaping how viewers / consumers / users communicate, consume and share information. Technology democratization is probably one most important significant impact of new media. By enabling interaction between viewers / consumers / users, new media forms (compared to more passive conventional media forms) have made possible information creation, development and propagation by viewers / consumers / users. This development has, moreover, opened doors wide for a whole new world of user-generated media content. In contrast to conventional media (produced centrally by public or independent organizations, new media forms enable viewers / consumers / users to produce content defined, literally, by viewer / consumer / user choices.
This pattern in media production is consistent to a post-industrial economy. Geared to service and customization, new media production models are, if anything, catering for specific, granulized needs hardly met by a mass production model of conventional media. Then again, digital democracy is not complete as far as new media forms are concerned since, as noted above, access is not equal for all in order to reap benefits of new media.
