Museums in the Digital Era

Since the dawn of the digital era, museums, like all institutes, found themselves in the midst of constant changes. Rules from the past ceased to be effective, and the roles and relationships between museums and their audience no longer the same. In the age of participatory culture, global connection and high and popular cultural convergence, the power of the united fans has brought about obvious impact on the world of popular culture and potentially pervading into the art world; while trends and market demands from cultural tourism also influencing the museums’ direction. This study borrows the theoretical viewpoint of fandom and participatory culture from current media and popular culture studies, while incorporating conversations from cultural tourism, glocalization and effects of Diasporas. This thesis seeks to uncover the current museum engagement strategies and the fan activities on Facebook and one user-generated content project on Twitter. 10 museums Facebook pages randomly sampled from a list of top 500 museums Facebook presence (20 posts per museum), as well as 3 best practice museums (40 posts per museum) were analyzed qualitatively to understand the museums’ strategies on Facebook. Comments and wall postings by fans from the 3 best practice museums’ FB pages were also qualitatively analyzed. To supplement the lack of UCG projects on FB, this thesis has also included one UCG project on Twitter, hosted by one of the best practiced museums. Results from the study indicate that “localism” and “popular culture reference” are both prevalent strategies among museums; however, the advertised attempts at “open dialogues” by the museums seldom take place. Effects of “the Digital Diasporas” could be the main reason behind one museum’s online success. And lastly, museum Facebook pages are becoming open spaces for artists’ self-promotion.