How Highly Prized is Creativity and Innovation in Media?

There is no doubt as to the fact that media is a creative industry, thus it is not absurd to conclude that creativity is fundamental to achieving success within it. However, in such a rapidly evolving and ever hard to define sphere, where exactly does the value of creativity and innovation sit? How crucial is it to gaining and sustaining employment within the media industry and how vital is it to growing and maintaining a business/brand/project? After all, most of us don’t have the luxury of becoming the perpetual struggling artist.

The point of entry and the ability to achieve longevity in the media industry appears to be fraught with a multitude of impediments. The contemporary media sector is one where are the size of permanent staffs quickly diminishes, casualization of the labour force increases, entry to the labour market is more difficult and less well rewarded or supported, average earnings have dropped, and working terms and conditions continue to deteriorate. All of these factors drive the level of competitiveness amongst all facets of the industry (Ursell, 2000).

The average media worker operates in a complex environment, somewhere between the splendid isolation of one’s individual creative endeavours and a constantly changing transnational context of ties, relationships, demands, and pressures of colleagues, consumers, employers, and clients (Dueze, 2009).

Simply resting on one’s creativeness seems like a terrifying feat in light of all these obstacles, but perhaps it is those who can look that fear in the face and proceed with enthusiasm and vigour, are the ones cut out to prosper under what others would classify dire employment circumstances.

In an article published in Campaign ‘Is there still room for creativity in the media industry?’ it’s posited that at a time when there are thousands of consumer touchpoints, the idea that those responsible for delivering messages to the right people in the right context require less creativity than they did 20 years ago — when only print, posters and a handful of TV and radio channels existed — is laughable.

Creativity and innovation might just be what propels someone over the line in the hugely competitive business of media. One’s creativity and ability to affectively implement their individualism might just be the most invaluable quality in their repertoire, especially when pitted against their equally qualified competitors. Like-mindedness is the biggest killer of innovation those in the industry recognise this.

Illustrator Jessica Hagy explains how Weirdness is Bankable: “Weirdness, by its very definition, is a deviation from the norm — the opposite of a commodity. Weird makes its own markets. Weirdness makes its own rules. Weirdness provides breathing room and leverage”. Hagy also suggests that weirdness creates notoriety, which therefore commands attention and respect and in a sea of candidates all vying for similar positions, (be it job or position within the entire market) the ability to stand out can be seen none other than a positive.

While it is clear that creativity and innovation are hugely valued in the media industry, what is less discernable is how both qualities are defined in a useful way. Daniel Burrus defines creativity as a function of knowledge, curiosity, imagination, and evaluation.

In his article Creativity and Innovation: Your Keys to a Successful Organisation, Burrus breaks down this function into three separate categories the first is ‘Discovery’ described as the lower level of creativity and as the name suggest it’s when one becomes aware of something or stumbles upon something. The second is ‘Invention’ a higher level of creativity because something becomes of the initial discovery. The third is creation as Burrus describes as the highest level of creation. He uses the example of the stage play Othello:

“Elizabethan drama would have gone on without Shakespeare, but no one else would have written Othello. Similarly, there are things that only your organization can create! The key is tapping in to what those things are.”

Burrus also urges the understanding that creativity and innovations are separate things. Whilst creativity refers to generating new and novel ideas, innovation is the application of an idea. Each immeasurably useful on their own, evidently used in conjunction, they are a forced to be reckoned with. Innovation is the process where ideas cease to be confined to the mind; it is the practical use of creativity.

Creative industries are both cause and consequence of a new convergence, at the local, national and global level, of culture and economy, art and technology and the shift towards an ‘informational’, ‘symbolic’ and ‘knowledge-based’ modes of production — largely, but not exclusively, realised through the boom in informational, leisure and educational products (Castells, 1996).

Banks (2002) argues that this process will ensure that creativity and innovation continue to become more central to the generation and exploitation of new products and productivity.

Though the concept of productivity is a key marker of success within the media industry, although it might seem, does not in fact put permitters on creativity. It simply means that one can scarcely afford to be creative in one singular area nor is creativity rigidly defined in this way. Rather a creative approach is required for the entire application and ultimate means of delivering a creative idea. Creativity in the media industry is not limited to a single process.

In an interview conducted with managers and owners from over 20 SMEs from a variety of new media subsectors including advertising and marketing, education and e-learning, graphic design, digital art and IT/business systems software, when asked ‘what is creativity and where is it located?’ Many responded with ‘having the ability to identify, distil and capture the client’s problem and develop

and provide an effective solution’:

“A creative is able to derive a solution to a problem which didn’t exist before so they are coming up with innovation in some way, be it mechanical, electrical, making marks on paper, creating music so I don’t think a creative is necessary the guy with the magic markers and sketch pad” (Banks, 2002).

By expanding the notion of creativity and innovation and deepening our understanding, it is clear that both are highly prized within every facet of the media industry, across every specialisation. It would be easy to dismiss creativity as simply an intangible and impractical quality that suffers in the face of formal qualification, skill and experience which in the cut throat media industry is a dime a dozen. When in fact creativity can be the very thing that allows someone make a name for themselves, product or company, it can be a key factor in productivity and a huge driving force behind success.