How Enterprise and Entrepreneurism Are Operating in the Creative Media Industries Today

The culture of enterprise and entrepreneurship has become increasingly present in the creative media industries over the past decade. Advances in digital technologies have led to a shift in the media industry as there are suddenly more career opportunities opening up to fill the new technology driven space. The rise of social media has enabled the ordinary individual to make a name for themselves without a public relations team, creating an entrepreneurial atmosphere among new talents who believe in self-management to move their career forward. Easy access to the internet has also led to individuals being able to study and create with little resources, developing apps and websites of their own accord. This swing in power from the professionals to amateurs illustrates just how much the creative media industry is changing and will continue to change.

An enterprise culture generally refers to when the taking of financial risks in the hope of profit is encouraged within society. At the centre of this is the entrepreneur; an individual driven by monetary or personal desires who finds pleasure in getting things done. Richard Swedberg wrote in his 2006 piece on ‘The Cultural Entrepreneur and the Creative Industries’ that the entrepreneur has “the capacity to seize on what is novel” and is a “man of action”. This has become clear in the past decade as the media industry has been changed by the digital advances in technology and entrepreneurs around the world have jumped on board this wave of interest to further their careers in fields that are seen as risky simply because they are new and unknown. Mark Deuze, an academic in the media industry, believes that “what people are doing online is a good indicator of how everyday life for a working professional (or those seeking to become one) in today’s new capitalist economy has changed.” Traditional media work is no longer a reliable career path which has led to the creation of new enterprises ready to embrace the new technologies offered to them.

One of these new areas that has become part of the creative media industry is the phenomena of mobile applications, particularly those that have an effect on how the media industry operates. Akshay Kothari is an example of such an entrepreneur in this field who went about transforming the journalism sector. A graduate student in electrical engineering at Stanford University, Akshay decided to forgo his university studies to chase after the dream of creating an app with fellow student Ankit Gupta. Together they invented the ‘Pulse News Reader’, a $3.99 iPad application that collates news stories for it’s readers for easier access to current stories from readers’ favourite news sites. The app quickly became the top paid app in the iPad section of Apple Inc.’s App Store, according to the Wall Street Journal. In an interview with the Journal the two engineering students stated that “news readers provide a way to keep newspaper and magazine content relevant in a mobile age and might even help provide a new source of revenue for the beleaguered industry by driving traffic back to their websites.” This demonstrates just how an entrepreneur in the creative media industries can change the industry, particularly journalism as shown in this case. Akshay thought out of the box and risked messing up his university education to develop his own enterprise which has gone on to effect news outlets worldwide.

To accommodate the shift in the need for PR, entrepreneurs within this sector have gone about coming up with alternate ways to engage talent and become part of this new way of relations. A piece in The Entrepreneurial Executive (2012) acknowledged that “traditional marketing methods can no longer sustain a business” and the evolution of social media needs to be taken advantage of as a marketing tool for entrepreneurs. “Social connectivity [is] becoming the key to marketing,” the article states, which has visibly been made clear to content creators in the creative media industry. With the rise of social media, up-and-coming bands and content creators on YouTube are choosing to skip hiring a professional PR team and are creating their own brand by themselves. An expose on the role of ‘social media experts’ in the Public Relations Review, discussed how young practitioners are more often than not the ones performing social media tasks. The ‘Millennials’ as they are now called, are manipulating the social media field, both in public relation agencies and in every day life. Tyler Oakley, a YouTube star with over eight million subscribers and 500 million views, started out working in social media in a public relations team before realising that he was able to do it for himself instead of a random company. Leaving his job, Tyler harnessed his entrepreneurial spirit to launch his own brand leading to five million twitter followers, three million Facebook likes and his own book, documentary and spot on The Amazing Race.

In response to the sudden shift in the necessity for a public relations agent or team, entrepreneurs in the public relations industry have altered their traditional work habits through the creation of websites and applications that intend to help content creators to better manage their social media accounts. Sites such as HootSuite enable users to view all of their social media feeds as well as schedule and manage their content. HootSuite was founded by Ryan Holmes, who began his entrepreneurial livelihood when he opened a pizza restaurant and a paintball company when he was just a teenager. His site has enabled him to stay relevant in the new public relations field to content creators, as well as providing a platform to PR agencies. Anthony Davis, author of Mastering Public Relations (2007), believes that “creativity is the very life-blood of public relations practice, which is closely identified with the enterprise culture.” Workers in the public relations sector, like Ryan Holmes, have used their skills in creativity and innovation to become entrepreneurs to keep public relations afloat in todays media centred society. “Public relations is expected to provide an inexhaustible flow of creative solutions that are distinctive,” Davis writes, adding that, “practitioners are generally noted for their seemingly relentless energy and enthusiasm,” drawing on the traits of a good entrepreneur.

Workers in the creative media industries are instinctive entrepreneurs who are creating new enterprises every day. They have been tested by the growth of digital and social media and have had to think out of the box to stay relevant and needed in their respective sectors. Whether in public relations, journalism, advertising or media, new enterprises are blossoming and entrepreneurs are thriving. While the future is unknown, these entrepreneurs have proven that they can adapt and will be ready for what is to come.