Rethinking communication, creativity and cultural production: outlining issues for media practice

The study of communication has not concentrated much of its global research effort on the way messages are created. Most often there has been a set of commonsense assumptions used about the notion of creativity itself and how this applies to media practice. However, there has been considerable research undertaken in other disciplines focused on gaining a rational understanding of creativity and how it works. We can therefore no longer assume that our commonsense assumptions provide a sound base for thinking about communication, creativity and cultural production. Consequently, if a research based understanding of creativity is applied to the issues that are currently pertinent to media practice in radio, journalism, television, film, photography, popular music and digital media, and then absorbed into the study of communication and cultural production, the focus of these issues will inevitably change as well. If this is the case then we need to put in place a slightly different set of practices to stimulate and think about creativity in the media.