Cultural Consumption and Participation

As technology-push and supply-side creativity help determine the shape of enhanced and more diverse cultural supply, new characteristics such as the potential of interactivity and multidirectional connections become questions of public policy and raise issues of consumer choice, accountability, and control. How equipped are we to monitor and understand the nature of these issues on a macro scale? This paper explores cultural consumption and participation patterns in Canada by reviewing recent quantitative analyses, identifying key data gaps, and proposing solutions. These include: (1) considering longer-range forecasts of consumer change; (2) conducting more international comparisons of consumer/participant-related research indicators; and (3) calling for more extensive theoretical and practical research focussed on the cultural consumer and participant.