New literacy, new audiences: social media and cultural institutions

This paper reports on a major Australian research project which examines whether the evolution in digital content creation and social media can create a new audience of active cultural participants. The project draws together experts from major Australian museums, libraries and screen centres to examine the evolution in digital content creation and social media. It explores whether organizations can become active in content generation ('new literacy'), and thereby be linked into new modes of distribution, calling into being 'new audiences'. The paper presents interim findings of the project, describing the theories and methodologies developed to investigate the rise of social media and, more broadly, digital content creation, within cultural institutions.