Clustering and the Digital Economy: New Media in Toronto/ Les Grappes et L'economie Digitale: Les Nouveaux Medias a Toronto

The media industry contributes to the digital cultural economy and to the digital producer services industry. National, regional and local factors that led to the concentration of firms in Toronto are assessed, and the paper evaluates whether this functions as a cluster. Cluster theory is outlined and applied using data acquired from interviews with executives. Spatial, production, and market relationships support the interpretation that since the end of the bubble economy firms in Toronto have learnt to develop stronger cluster relationships. The cluster, however, still strives to develop associations effective in establishing Toronto's profile within international competition. La nouvelle industrie des medias contribue a l'economie culturelle digitale. Les facteurs nationaux, regionaux et locaux ayant menes a la concentration des entreprises a Toronto sont evalues, et l'article evalue s'il s'agit d'une grappe. La theorie des grappes est decrite et appliquee en utilisant des donnees acquises a partir d'entrevues avec des cadres. Les rapports spatiaux, de production et de marche sont a la base de notre hypothese que depuis la fin de la periode des heures de gloire de l'economie du savoir, les entreprises torontoises ont appris a developper des rapports sous forme de grappe plus forts. Cette grappe du multimedia, cependant, tente toujours de developper des associations efficaces et d'etablir la competitivite internationale de Toronto. ********** Over the last three decades references to the 'digital economy' or the 'new economy' have been commonly used to signify the intensive development and application of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT). At one time these terms might have been applied to hardware and software technologies, but increasingly scholars have emphasized the breadth of social, economic and policy changes and economy-wide growth processes that derive from the implementation of these (Lipsey 2002). Accordingly, it is important to adopt an inclusive conception of the digital economy, such as that provided by Kling and Lamb, who include the goods or services whose development, production, sale, or provision is critically dependent upon digital technologies (2000: 297). The broad definition accommodates growth of the digital economy in areas. An increasing range of activities is adopting these and stimulating products. Driving this growth is the enormous increase in demand for digital information, transactional and cultural products, and services. Of particular importance in this paper are media firms that have proved to be particularly significant as providers of producer and consumer services, often through interactive digital systems and content that integrate visual, audio and text information. Thus, media firms have been responsible for the digital-transformation of traditional services and for the development of products that are among the most visible aspects of the 'digital economy'--hence the term new media, previously multi-media, is applied. The expansion of the digital economy through the 1990s is indicated by the growth of the workforce of the Information and Communications Technologies (ICT) sector. In Canada, the ICT workforce was 570,000 in 2003, with over three-fourths employed in the service sector. Over the 1990's, the ICT workforce increased by 73 % compared with 12 % for the total labour force, and the growth in Toronto's ICT workforce (127 %) was a strong influence because it had the largest concentration of ICY employment (28 %). (1) By the beginning of 2001, the growth trajectory of the 1990s was over. The international bubble economy that had emerged based on grossly speculative investments in ICT had burst. This had an adverse impact in Canada and since 2000 there has been little growth recorded in ICT. As an indicator of Canada's digital employment, official ICT data is limited, as only well-established activities have been included in its definition. …

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