The primary objective of this thesis is to examine the process of content innovation in the multimedia industries in Ireland. It is also concerned with the tension between cultural ideals and economic imperatives faced by both producers and policy makers in the field of new media. This thesis critiques technological determinist approaches to technological and social change and applies instead a social shaping perspective enriched by insights from industrial innovation and communication studies. Multimedia, in this thesis, is defined as both technology and cultural form. While it can be said that multimedia has emerged from the technological convergence of computing, telecommunication and traditional media this thesis adopts a broader perspective. It proposes that the origins of multimedia can be found in economic, political and cultural developments throughout this century and more particularly the social appropriation of a range of communications systems: telephony, photography, radio and television. Following a theoretical analysis of broad theories of social change this thesis presents a macro analysis of the national and institutional context for innovation in Ireland. This is followed by in-depth case studies conducted in organisations that are producing multimedia content aimed at final users in particular cultural markets. In analysing this sub-section of the information economy in Ireland the thesis is particularly concerned with economic, political and social factors, at a local and global level, which advance or inhibit the process of content innovation. This concern with content and the innovative process in historically and spatially situated firms aims to contribute to both our understanding of the process of innovation as well as our understanding of how new media forms develop. It furthermore aims to elucidate information economy and information society theories by providing a more empirically grounded account of patterns of social and economic change in Ireland, in the global context