Exploring social media influence

This research explores the use of social media within the creative community of Newport, South Wales. After decisions were made by the local authority (LA) to deplete cultural services in the city between 2012 and 2015, a number of negative online reactions were generated, motivating the creative community to protest both online and offline. Through a series of thirteen, one-one-one, semi-structure, in-depth interviews with members of the creative community in Newport, confluence themes identified within the literature were explored and topics further developed in primary research. The paper develops both a conceptual model through the theoretical framework and subsequent descriptive model through the findings of primary research. The research has identified barriers to communication between the creative community and Newport City Council (NCC), exploring the fluid and static language and meanings, in terms of shared meanings in the former and outdated meanings in the latter. This is set against the co-production model as an approach to combatting those barriers, and using social media as the tool to initiate those explorations.