Cultural Industries: blog tasks

Cultural Industries: notes

Hesmondhalgh discusses the way the cultural industries operate and explores their effect on audiences: “Of one thing there can be no doubt: the media do have influence.”

He points out that societies with profitable cultural industries (e.g. USA, UK) tend to be dominated by large companies, have minimal government regulation and significant inequality between rich and poor.

Do cultural industries reinforce these conditions?

The cultural industries: a risky business

Hesmondhalgh acknowledges that media companies are operating a risky business. There is no guarantee a creative product will be a success.

They offset this risk both creatively and through business structure. In terms of media products, they use stars, sequels and well-known genres.

In terms of business, they use vertical integration and diversification to spread their risk and maximise profit.

Commodification

Hesmondhalgh discusses commodification in the cultural industries (turning everything into something that can be bought or sold).

He suggests this creates problems on both the consumption and production side. For the production side, he points to certain areas of the cultural industries where people are not fairly rewarded.

Hesmondhalgh: diversity in the media

Hesmondhalgh has explored whether the cultural industries truly reflect the diversity of people and society.

Hesmondhalgh references Mosco (1996): “There is a difference between multiplicity – a large number of voices – and diversity – whether or not these voices are actually offering different things from each other.”

Despite their size, are the cultural industries dominated by a narrow range of values and ideologies?

Read the Factsheet and complete the following questions/tasks:
1) What does the term 'Cultural Industries' actually refer to?

The term ‘cultural industry’ refers to the creation, production, and distribution of products of a cultural or artistic nature.

2) What does Hesmondhalgh identify regarding the societies in which the cultural industries are highly profitable?

Hesmondhalgh identifies that the societies in which the cultural industries are highly profitable tend to be societies that support the conditions where large companies, and their political allies, make money.

3) Why do some media products offer ideologies that challenge capitalism or inequalities in society?

 This happens because the cultural industry companies need to continuously compete with each other to secure audience members

4) Look at page 2 of the factsheet. What are the problems that Hesmondhalgh identifies with regards to the cultural industries?

Hesmondhalgh indentifies that the cultural industriesis complex and ambivalent.

5) Why are so many cultural industries a 'risky business' for the companies involved?

Risk derives from the fact that audiences use cultural commodities in highly volatile and unpredictable ways – often in order to express the view that they are different from other people.

6) What is your opinion on the creativity v commerce debate? Should the media be all about profit or are media products a form of artistic expression that play an important role in society?

I think some media products are a form of artistic expression that the audience can consume and maybe take it in and adapt to the world of the media creators narrative. What I mean is, some media products are supposed to be non profit and because of this, the members of the audience can consume what they put out and they would share it with their friends and they would all be able to relate to each other and for example, quote from the media product and etc.

7) How do cultural industry companies minimise their risks and maximise their profits? (Clue: your work on Industries - Ownership and control will help here) 

they follow what the regulators regulations are so they don't become censored.

8) Do you agree that the way the cultural industries operate reflects the inequalities and injustices of wider society? Should the content creators, the creative minds behind media products, be better rewarded for their work?

I feel like the creative minds behind the media product really need to be awarded more for their work, no body thinks about the person who made the movie or film, until they have been recognized to put out more work that becomes more popular, only then, people know more and more about them. it's usually the media industry that gets most of the credit or company.

9) What is commodification?

Commodification is the transformation of goods, services, ideas and people into commodities, or objects of trade.

10) Do you agree with the argument that while there are a huge number of media texts created, they fail to reflect the diversity of people or opinion in wider society?

No, I feel that there will always be some media text created that will always reflect the diversity of people and opinion in wider society, this is because media companies need to make money and they will do this by giving the people what they want.

11) How does Hesmondhalgh suggest the cultural industries have changed? Identify the three most significant developments and explain why you think they are the most important.

Hesmondhalgh suggests that the cultural industries have changed because they've become globalized. Cultural Industries are no longer seen as the "real" economy. Ownership and control is much broader. The largest cultural companies now operate across a range of cultural industries. Digitalization, the internet and mobile phones have multiplied the ways audience can gain access to cultural content. Out of these, I think the most significant developments is ownership and control. This is because now that the largest cultural companies can now operate across a range of cultural industries, they can target anyone from any background and make their product relevant to them.