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...