To address the topics above, I began by reviewing the transcripts from informal, semi-structured interviews conducted with museum and marketing professionals in Paris, London, New York, San Francisco and Los Angeles.
A majority of data was pulled from LaPlaca Cohen’s CultureTrak, part of an “ongoing national research study of the attitudes and behaviors of cultural audiences, examining trends in attendance at visual and performaing arts events and the motivators and barriers that affect participation.” (LaPlaca Cohen, 2011) These findings were also backed by statistics provided by Stuart Hall, Market & Opinion Research International (MORI) and ethnographic studies by Bennett et. al.
Apropo to the topic at hand, most of my findings on social media, new media and New Media Art and the post media condition, were found online via blogs, online journals and other publications. To support my findings, I vetted works by philosophers and theorists such as Bourdieu, Baudrillard, Foucault to provide relevant social theories; academics such as Bennett and Macdonald for their comments on the history of museums and context of museum studies; communications consultants such as David Meerman Scott and Amy Shuen for their insights into social media and web 2.0; and, finally, theorists such as Ray Oldenburg and Marshall McLuhan for their ideas on media.
It should be noted that my findings are limited to the theories and practices originating in Europe and North America, as the Western world has, so far, served as the epicenter of the development, use and advancement of social media for the English-speaking world. In addition, institutions in the UK, France and the United States continue to set the standard for best uses of new media and social media in marketing the arts. This is in part due to having access to funding and technological resources not afforded many other countries, as well as being countries whose cultural programs are either directly supported by federal aid or are allowed to function autonomously and only rarely interrupted by political interests.[1] These countries also play host to museums that set the standard in management, operations and community outreach, with France serving as the headquarters for UNESCO’s Museums Sector, and Europe playing host to 79 members of the International Council of Museums (almost triple that of any other continent). Furthermore, most of the research findings drawn upon to support the following analysis and recommendations will have originated in the United States or Britain.
[1] Rarely, because there have been several attempts at censorship of art in the US, including a 1999 exhibit titled, “Sensation” at the Brooklyn Museum, and the censorship of an outdoor mural, by Blu, for MOCA in 2010.
