Policy in media production: structural effects on creativity

This research project investigated the idea that structural frameworks predispose media producers toward certain creative actions. Specifically, it examined how the policies which govern the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) impact upon the creativity of their employees. Creativity in this case is defined as bringing novel products, processes or ideas into being. This thesis uses Csikszentmihalyi’s systems model of creativity (1988, 1999) as an analytical tool to explain how creativity occurs not solely within the individual, as Romantic myths of creativity assert, but through an interaction between a domain of knowledge, a field of people who hold, to varying degrees, that domain knowledge and an individual agent who makes choices within this system. The research was conducted using an ethnographic study, incorporating triangulated methods including; document analysis, workplace observation at the ABC Radio Studios in Newcastle, and interviews with three producers who work at the studio. Using this collected data this research presents insights into the practical application of the editorial policies to the daily activities of media producers. Employing Csikszentmihalyi’s systems model of creativity (1988, 1999), the thesis concludes that policy frameworks both constrain and enable the creative actions of media producers within the ABC.