Digital Culture and Arts Communication via Facebook: Prospects and Concerns for Work in the Culture Sector in Vietnam

Abstract

This paper investigates the use of Facebook by cultural professionals in Vietnam to maintain connections with their audiences during the Covid-19 pandemic. Facebook provided a simple and free way of maintaining connections with audiences at a time of increased pressure to shift and adapt to online work immediately. However, concerns have emerged about the nature of arts-centred endeavours that are at odds with this for-profit platform and the production of digital culture in the Global South via a Western platform. The investigation uses findings from 50 semi-structured interviews with cultural professionals and a digital ethnography of seven art organizations’ Facebook posts over two months. It highlights that the Covid-19 pandemic propelled a paradigm shift in how cultural professionals communicated with their audiences via Facebook. These shifts have longer and broader implications for the future of work in the cultural sector, both in Asia and globally.