Is there an app for that? A case study of the potentials and limitations of the participatory turn and networked publics for classical music audience engagement

Crawford, G; Gosling, VK; Bagnall, G; Light, BA

Abstract

The participatory turn, fuelled by discourses and rhetoric regarding social media, and in the
aftermath of the dot.com crash of the early 2000s, enrols to some extent an idea of being
able to deploy networks to achieve institutional aims. The arts and cultural sector in the UK,
in the face of funding cuts, has been keen to engage with such ideas in order to demonstrate
value for money; by improving the efficiency of their operations, improving their respective
audience experience and ultimately increasing audience size and engagement. Drawing on a
case study compiled via a collaborative research project with a UK-based symphony
orchestra (UKSO) we interrogate the potentials of social media engagement for audience
development work through participatory media and networked publics. We argue that the
literature related to mobile phones and applications (‘apps’) has focused primarily on
marketing for engagement where institutional contexts are concerned. In contrast, our
analysis elucidates the broader potentials and limitations of social-media-enabled apps for
audience development and engagement beyond a marketing paradigm. In the case of UKSO,
it appears that the technologically deterministic discourses often associated with institutional
enrolment of participatory media and networked publics may not necessarily apply due to
classical music culture. More generally, this work raises the contradictory nature of
networked publics and argues for increased critical engagement with the concept.

Citation

Crawford, G., Gosling, V., Bagnall, G., & Light, B. (2014). Is there an app for that? A case study of the potentials and limitations of the participatory turn and networked publics for classical music audience engagement. Information, Communication and Society, 17(9), 1072-1085. https://doi.org/10.1080/1369118X.2013.877953

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Dec 17, 2013
• Online Publication Date: Jan 23, 2014
• Publication Date: Jan 1, 2014
• Deposit Date: Jan 7, 2014
• Publicly Available Date: Apr 5, 2016
• Journal: Information, Communication & Society
• Print ISSN: 1369-118X
• Publisher: Routledge
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 17
• Issue: 9
• Pages: 1072-1085
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/1369118X.2013.877953
• Publisher URL: https://doi.org/10.1080/1369118X.2013.877953
• Related Public URLs: https://www.tandfonline.com/toc/rics20/current