By Hans Hoegh-Guldberg (Economic Strategies)
Last updated: 1 November 2007
Contents
- Mapping” versus “issues” articles
- How long should they be?
- Numbers versus stories
- We are appealing to people who know their scene
“Mapping” versus “issues” articles
We favour a flexible approach to contributions to the various topics shown in the right-hand sidebar. Ideally each page listed in the sidebar starts with an article or paper that maps (describes) the scene. Statistical “mapping papers” appear in the statistics section, verbal ones on the appropriate page of the context, performance or support sections of the knowledge base.
Contributors are reminded that up to half the visitors to the website are from overseas countries and even Australian residents are unlikely to be familiar with all aspects of the Australian music scene. This makes it extra important to describe a topic before discussing it.
The other main type of article takes up issues. If such “issues papers” appear before a mapping paper has been written, or where the description is in the statistics section, they are preceded by an introductory note. In short, we welcome descriptive (“mapping”) contributions, those taking up issues, and papers that start with descriptions and then develop the issues. What we really want is to tap the knowledge and ideas of all those at the coalface, wherever they may be situated within the music sector.
So there is clearly a range of possible ways in which contributions can be arranged. The pages on orchestras or music therapy, and many others, provide good examples of narrative description or “mapping”. The pages on music in schools contains both a mapping paper and one discussing issues based on the 2005 National Review of School Music Education. Other pages contain descriptive papers that go on to develop issues. Some of the statistical papers dealing with census and related data fall into that category.
How long should they be?
The length of the contribution is also flexible, varying from a few hundred words to several thousand. The median is around 2,000 words or four normal typed pages, but this is not sacrosanct. Some papers exceed 5,000 words where the author has felt it was necessary to get the story across in all its relevant detail.
Often the length can be limited by referring to other websites. We welcome such links which are always opened in a separate window to avoid undue interruptions to the reading of the main story.
Numbers versus stories
The banner heading of the knowledge base defines it as “the Australian music sector described in numbers and words”. Both components are important. Whether or not there are substantial statistics to back a narrative, the latter plays a role in its own right. To take an example from the statistics section, the analysis of several successive Australian census takings in Musicians in the Census started with the statistics, but the narrative brings out the points and issues which might be lost if the analysis was purely numerical.
For many topics – far too many for comfort – the statistical base is weak and we have to rely unduly on verbal description backed perhaps by some ballpark numerical estimates of limited validity. Readers are reminded that the idea of the knowledge base grew from Dick Letts’ and my 2005 report on a statistical framework for the music sector commissioned by the Statistics Working Group of the Cultural Ministers’ Council. The report strongly advocates the urgent development of an improved statistical base for the Australian music sector, which would also improve the basis for narrative description.
Narratives (“stories”) about the music sector remain very important, including an understanding of the background. Consider this in the context of questions such as:
- What is important in a national economic, social, cultural and policy sense about preserving and nurturing musical and other cultural diversity?
- Why is there a new emphasis on creativity, whether of an artistic or technological nature, and what unique opportunities for music follow from this?
- Why, then, is the statistical knowledge base on music so weak, and why isn’t more done to remedy this?
We are appealing to people who know their scene
Such questions, and many others that deal with specific segments of the music sector, must be addressed by people who are in there already.
In summary, we are looking for factual descriptions of particular parts of the Australian music sector, across the spectrum of the music sector, and we are looking for contributions that highlight the issues facing these activities. While we ask our contributors to adopt a balanced and objective attitude, there are many ways of writing about a particular topic in the knowledge base. In addition to statistical or verbal descriptions (mapping papers), we welcome discussions of strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats (“SWOT analysis”), and what are the key issues that face a given part of the music sector.
