The Circulations of Culture - On Social Distribution of Content

Mirosław Filiciak, Justyna Hofmokl, Alek Tarkowski
2012 Social Science Research Network  
Principal conclusions of our report are: 13% of Poles purchase content, as opposed to 33% that obtain it through informal, digital circulations. Only 13% of Poles have purchased a book, a movie, or a musical recording in the year before the survey. On the other hand, one third of Poles are engaged in the informal sphere understood here as sharing books, music, and movies in digital formats via the Internet. Informal circulation is the second source of cultural content with the broadcast mass
more » ... ia like radio and TV being the first. If we consider various forms of cost-free borrowing (e.g. from friends) of content (primarily books) stored on physical media an element of the informal circulation, then the informal sphere will cover 39% of Poles -thus being three times as large as the market-bound circulation of cultural content. Engaging with the informal circulations of digital content strongly correlates with age. The survey demonstrated that 17 % of people within the 40 to 59 age range and only 6% of people within the 60 and older group claimed to use any form of digital sharing. Further, only 5% of people within the 40 to 59 age group and 1% of the people within the 60 and older group claimed to have downloading content from the Internet done so -therefore, we should assume that populations ages 40 and older do not participate in smaller circulation of digital content. The survey did not corroborate the thesis about informal circulations supplanting the formal ones. The people who most actively engage in the informal content circulations (i.e. Internet users who download files) constitute the largest segment of the purchasers. They comprise 32% of all people purchasing books, 31% of all people purchasing movies, and over half of all people who buy music. They also make up the largest segment of people who lend each other content. People from that group probably treat both informal and formal circulations as complementary. What's important, similarly as in the case of the opposite group -people who engage with the informal circulation but not with the formal one -there is a correlation between percentage of users and age. The 15 to 24 age group made up the biggest part of the group of people that both purchase content and download it from the Internet -despite common assumptions that younger generations lack funds to purchase content. A quarter of all Poles engage with the informal circulation without purchasing any content from the formal circulations. Membership in this group is strongly linked with age -the percentage of such people is much higher in the younger age groups, while significantly dropping off in age groups over 50. Our survey does not give a clear answer whether these people dropped out of the formal circulation, or whether they never participated in it and became more culturally active because of the availability of the informal circulation. Yet based on historical data on participation in formal circulation, the first hypothesis is highly improbable, as participation in formal circulations has always been low in Poland. 62% of Poles do not participate in either the formal or the informal circulations of cultural content. The primary form of cultural activity for most Poles is probably watching television and listening to the radio. The average Internet user buys three times more books and movies and seven times more music in comparison with people who don't use the Internet. Internet usage is the primary distinguishing factor when it comes to interest in cultural content, which is further correlated with age and education. More importantly, these differences are even more pronounced where accessing content doesn't require any financial commitment, such as borrowing books, movies, or music. Active Internet users are a group especially inclined to participate in circulations of culture. Strong differences are revealed when Internet users are split into less active and more active ones, with the latter being the focus of the second survey. 89% of them claimed to have read a book in the past 12 months. Further, engaging with the informal content circulation is commonplace for active Internet users; 88% of active Internet users Internet participate in the informal circulation of music, 73% participate in informal book circulation, and 78% engage in informal movie circulation (in the three months preceding the survey). These circulations include downloading content from the Internet, using content downloaded by other members of the household, and copying content from family members and friends; but also photocopying and scanning books, lending CDs and DVDs and using the library. If we combine the activities related to books, music and film then 72% of active internet users claim to have downloaded files from the Internet -e.g. from file-sharing networks or from file hosting services. 92% of active users claim to have engaged in informal circulations if their definition is expanded to include all avenues of content access (such as streaming, sharing files with friends, etc.). If we include the informal circulation of content stored on physical media (e.g. sharing and copying books or CDs and DVDs) in the aforementioned definition, then practically all of the respondents (95%) claim to have engaged in such content circulations. The survey indicates, that among people who actively use the Internet, the informal, non-market economy of cultural content is the norm. Additionally, 75% of the respondents claim to have engaged with circulations related to the downloading of content. 75% of active internet users indicated price and a wider selection of content available on the Internet as justifications for their behavior. Two-thirds of them pointed to such factors as availability without delays (typical of formal circulations, where global content arrives in Poland often with a delay) or the selection available. Internet distribution impacts the way active internet users interact and use media formats. Only 8% of people who download music from the Internet download entire albums only; 31% download both albums and single files, while 61% download strictly single audio files. The fragmentation of musical albums is also visible in the structure of the amassed collections. The most commonplace attitude of active Internet users (50% of respondents) towards the informal circulations is moderate and focused on the broadening of cultural horizons. For them, the crucial factor is the ability to know more and see more, not acquire free content. Additionally, two countervailing attitudes exist between fans of the informal circulation (8%), who think that "everyone's downloading content," and its staunchest critics (11%), who claim that downloading is theft and that the law should be more stringent with people who acquire content from the Internet via illegal means. A fourth group (13%) claims that "downloading is simply easier." Interestingly, prices do not discourage them from acquiring content from the formal circulations, but rather the inconvenience of using the formal channels, that are not present when engaging the informal ones. 1 D. Batorski, Korzystanie z technologii informacyjno komunikacyjnych [Use of information communication technologies], in: Diagnoza społeczna 2009 [Social Diagnosis 2009], ed. J. Czapiński, T. Panek, pp. 308-309; www.diagnoza.com. 2 T. Panek, J. Czapiński, Kultura [Culture], in: Diagnoza społeczna 2011 [Social Diagnosis 2011], ed. J. Czapiński, T. Panek, p. 117; www.diagnoza.com. 3 We provide an overview of the literature on the subject in part 2. described the first circulation as based on personal contacts in which the roles of the sender and the receiver are interchangeable. The second, institutionalized circulation, was based on direct contact as well, but took place inside formal frameworks. Finally, she described a third -media circulation 6 . Barbara Fatyga then defined a fourth circulation, based on individual access to the Internet and mobile phones 7 . The phenomena which we are studying forms a large part of this "fourth circulation," however, they are not limited to it. Further, these phenomena, almost always avoid the formal circulation of content. With the current level of overlap between social and communication networks, it is impossible to distinguish a separate mediated circulation. Our understanding of the term "circulation" does not fit another typology as proposed by Mirosław Pęczak, who in his study of the culture of Communist-era Poland described three circulations of his own. The first was official, the second was oppositional, and the third was youth circulation. Tied primarily with the punk movement, youth circulation established its own newspapers, an alternative distribution system for music recordings, and a negation of politics (both in the official and oppositional form) 8 . We believe that the informal circulation of cultural content in digital forms does not fit directly into any of these three circulations described by Pęczak, including the youth circulation. Despite these conceptual differences, we have decided to use the concept of "circulation" partially because the abovementioned typologies stress the fluid character of diagnosed trajectories and a lack of strict borders between them. Fatyga 6 A. Kłoskowska, Socjologia kultury [Sociology of culture], Warszawa: PWN 1983, pp. 363-370. 7 B. Fatyga, J. Nowiński, T. Kukołowicz, Raport o edukacji kulturalnej [Report on cultural education], chapter 6, URL: http://www.kongreskultury.pl/title,pid,541.html 8 M. Pęczak, Kilka uwag o trzech obiegach [Several remarks on the three circulations], "Więź", no. 2/1988. Reviewing the state of international research on informal sharing of audiovisual content is a task which certainly falls outside the scope of this project. That's why we included only a partial review, which seeks to accomplish two tasks. First of all, it's supposed to serve as a reference point, allowing us to assess whether the sizes of the informal sphere in Poland and in other countries are similar or maybe very different. 18 I. Condry, I., Cultures of Music Piracy: An Ethnographic
doi:10.2139/ssrn.2246508 fatcat:lxdqa2sumnc43ebz2mlnjhugeq