The Urban Emergence of a New Information Industry: Sydney's Multimedia Firms

Abstract

This paper analyses the multimedia industry in Sydney. It seeks to understand whether the emergence of the industry has involved dense horizontal and vertical inter‐firm linkages characteristic of an industrial cluster, or whether the industry has grown because of general urbanisation economies related to such factors as skilled labour supply and market demand. The industry is highly concentrated in and around central Sydney. This provides the best access to firms’ main clients, notably advertising companies and other multimedia firms. It also reflects the centralised location of skilled labour such as web designers. While there is evidence of an emerging inner Sydney multimedia cluster which includes graphic design and advertising and related media, the main driver of the industry's development appears to have been general demand from advertising and related media companies, in association with the pool of computer graphics talent generated by these companies.

Global City and Migration: A Critical Review for Sydney, Australia

“…They include a traditional central city focus of producer services that have been reinforced by globalization (Searle, 1998), and an emerging inner city multimedia cluster (i.e. graphic design, advertising, and related media) (Searle and Valence, 2005). There is also an industry cluster of information technology and telecommunications in Northern Sydney, whose expansion, however, has been motivated primarily by the increasingly centrality of advanced producer services within the highorder business sector (Searle and Pritchard, 2005).…”

“…The fact that Sydney is now a global city has been argued and testified by international and local writers (see Baum, 1997;Beaverstock et al, 1999;Connell, 2000;Daly and Pritchard, 2000;Fagan, 2000;Friedmann, 1986Friedmann, , 1995Godfrey and Zhou, 1999;Hu, 2012a;McNeill et al, 2005;Searle, 1996Searle, , 1998Searle and De Valence, 2005;Taylor, 2004;. Likewise, economic globalization is essentialized in the global Sydney discourse, and the important element of migration is missing.…”

Moving images: world cities, connections and projects in Sydney's TV production industry

“…They have an alternative modus operandi to APS and traditional industries as they tend to be populated by smaller firms and the cultural nature of their products create a new set of problems regarding their marketability (that is they are socially symbolic ;Bourdieu 1986;Lash and Urry 1994;Pratt 2008;Scott 2001). Recent work on film (Christopherson 2006;Coe 2000;Mould 2007;Scott 2005), music (Leyshon 2001;Lovering 1998;Watson 2008 andspecific to Sydney, Gibson 2002), fashion (Crewe 1996), theatre (Dempster 2006;Sierz 1997) and new media (Christopherson 2004;Currah 2006;Searle and De Valence 2005) has shed light on the intricate (and project-based) workings of specific industries -yet little is known about the intercity connectivity of these industries. It is no secret that these industries have a tendency to cluster in certain city areas (Florida 2002;Landry 2000) for example Hollywood and Bollywood (film), Broadway (theatre), South Bank (art) -but what is not known is if, and to what extent, they contribute to the relational data of cultural industry networks between cities.…”

Migrant knowledge workers: An empirical study of global Sydney as a knowledge city

“…Other studies reveal the formation of certain knowledge-intensive clusters in central Sydney. They include a traditional central city focus of producer services that has been reinforced by globalization (Searle, 1998), an emerging inner city multimedia cluster (graphic design, advertising and related media) (Searle & Valence, 2005), and a concentration of the creative population living in and around central Sydney (Gibson, 2006). There is also a cluster of information technology and telecommunications in northern Sydney, whose expansion, however, has been motivated primarily by the increasingly centrality of advanced producer services within the high-order business sector in central Sydney (Searle & Pritchard, 2005).…”

“…Global Sydney is essentialized in its knowledge capacity. The global Sydney thesis has been argued and testified by international and local writers (see Friedmann, 1986Friedmann, , 1995Searle, 1996Searle, , 1998Baum, 1997;Beaverstock, Taylor, & Smith, 1999;Godfrey & Zhou, 1999;Connell, 2000;Daly & Pritchard, 2000;Taylor, 2004;McNeill, Dowling, & Fagan, 2005;Searle & Valence, 2005;Fagan, 2000;Taylor et al, 2011;Hu, 2012a;Hu, Blakely, & Zhou, 2013). Likewise, economic globalization is the core of the global Sydney thesis, focusing on its capacity of providing global services that are knowledge-based.…”