Creativity and Cultural Production

PHILLIP MCINTYRE Lecturer in Communication at the University of Newcastle, Australia, where he is Head of Discipline for Communication and Media. His research interest is in creativity and innovation, and he has been a music journalist, video and record producer, songwriter and musician. He has written for the journals Popular Music, Media International Australia and Creativity Research Journal.

'This is a pioneering and thorough examination of creativity and cultural production. It brings together a vast array of knowledge, critical analysis and insight to the field of creativity and cultural studies. It will be essential reading for anyone involved in popular music and media practices in journalism, television and photography, including academia, industry, researchers and policy makers and debaters. This book is appropriate for use and essential reading on university undergraduate and postgraduate media courses, as well as those who study and practice the different forms of creativity in the larger community. It will not ask you to think only positively about change, but will ask you to think anew about our experiential and conceptual understanding of creativity. It deserves to be widely read.' - Pamela Burnard, University of Cambridge, UK 'Drawing from the experiences of practitioners, Phillip McIntyre interrogates the varied disputes about creativity, and argues for a shift away from person-centred approaches to theorizing creative practice. This bold and challenging book de-romanticises the artist, proposing that understanding creativity should entail studying the operations of media systems, rather than the talented individuals so often portrayed as at odds with such systems.' - Keith Negus, Glodsmiths, University of London, UK 'This scholarly book is innovative and absolutely necessary to further our understanding of contemporary media practices. McIntyre aligns with the contemporary conception of creativity as a socially contextualized practice, rather than a personality type or a moment of insight. He develops a comprehensive overview of these contemporary frameworks, and then uses them to analyze contemporary media practices in radio, journalism, television, film, photography, and popular music. This is a valuable book for scholars of media production, and for scholars interested in creativity in general.' - Keith Sawyer, Associate Professor at Washington University, USA, and author of Explaining Creativity and Group Genius

• PART I: THEORIES ABOUT CREATIVITY AND CULTURAL PRODUCTION Introductory Perspectives on Creativity The Creator as Genius Bio-Psychological Perspectives Creativity and The Social The Cultural View Reconceptualising Creativity PART II: ISSUES FOR MEDIA PRACTICE Agency and Structure: The Case of Radio Journalism: Structures and Motivation Television: Form, Format and Being Formulaic Film: Auteur Theory, Collaboration, Systems Photography: Art, Craft and Their Symbiosis Popular Music: Creativity and Authenticity The Digital Revolution: Copyright and Creativity Refocusing Methods for Creative Work Bibliography Index