Page 132 - Communication Cultural and Media Studies The Key Concepts

INNOVATION

information to places it would not otherwise reach, and thus may be
seen as both educational and tactful.

See also: News values
Further reading: Langer (1998)

INFRASTRUCTURE

The physical platforms upon which systems, facilities and networks are
run. Infrastructure is essential to the information communications
technologies as it enables connectivity and provides services via
applications. Roads, footpaths and buildings are infrastructure. In
telecommunications, the required infrastructure is the telephone line
or cable, or the satellite through which information is distributed.
Privatisation has brought with it issues of access to infrastructure,
whereby private companies are capable of controlling the use of
infrastructure previously considered a public resource available to all.

INNOVATION

Neweconomy R&D. The first step in the creation of new tools,
products or creative works is an idea. Within traditional manufacturing
industries, ideas circulate at a lowrate, inhibited by routine, tradition
and existing methods of reproduction using well-known patterns.
Production, in the industrial economy, is produced by the technology
at hand. In innovative fields (media, software development, biotech-
nology, music production, for example) ideas circulate between people
rapidly. In this scenario, science and discovery create the new
technologies, pushing products to newlevels. The discussion of ideas,
contributions from others, the eventual development of an idea into
something new, is central to the success of these industries.
Landry and Bianchini (1994) distinguish creativity from innovation.
They identify creativity as the process through which new ideas are
produced, whereas innovation is the process through which they are
implemented. Therefore, creativity is a pre-condition for innovation,
but innovation – the evaluation and assessment of the creative idea – is
what will make the difference in product development. For innovation
to occur, it may entail stepping outside of routine or structure, and it
can therefore be the result of dissent or a product of experimentation.

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