The Importance of Creative Industries Funding
By Xander Townsend | Misfit Media Editor
It is well known that when it comes to Government funding, Creative Industries is the first to receive the chop. This is specifically applicable to the COVID-19 world we are currently living in. I understand it is important in a global pandemic to provide as many resources as possible to medical and research efforts, but I challenge you to think about what the first thing the general population turned too when lockdowns started being implemented. Creative and entertainment media.
With national and international statistical highs for depression, mental illness, and isolation, the world turned too and has been reliant on entertainment media platforms like Netflix, Stan, and Binge. Many turned to video games or were forced to discover new creative hobbies, all with the potential to share it with loved ones on social media since they lost the opportunity to do so in person. With these creative mediums being so heavily used in the past 2 years, why was it that creative and entertainment based funding was the first to be cut?
Entertainment and creative industries suffer from a lack of credibility purely on the basis that they are seen as non-essential. Non-essential or luxury disciplines may not be necessary for human and economic advancement at face value, but in a world of lockdowns where a majority of individuals are turning to entertainment and creative outlets, it is extremely important to invest in these areas. Creativity and media has been proven to help manage, provide distraction, or temporarily relieve the stresses of many different mental illnesses. Funding the investigation of creative industries and mental health would be invaluable.
Similarly to the video games industry, many find it hard to justify funding creatives or development teams to makes media and would much prefer to direct their resources to hardware systems and innovation tech. It is important to develop the most powerful hardware possible as it is the foundation for our modern world, but hardware is nothing without the software used to showcase is capabilities. A TV would be useless without an invigorating movie to watch, a console useless without a game that engrosses the user. Without creatives making content for these systems, the hardware would be irrelevant.
Creative industries has the capacity to showcase a multitude of disciplines including screen entertainment, video game development, visual artwork and design, and many more. Creative fields showcase uniqueness, engagement and cultural diversity, all whilst enabling everyday people to be entertained. These mediums are the things keeping everyday people company whilst we all battle a global pandemic, I think they deserve a little more attention.