Cultural industries

 Go to our Media Factsheet archive and open Factsheet 168: David Hesmondhalgh’s ‘The Cultural Industries’. Our Media Factsheet archive is on the Media Shared drive: M:\Resources\A Level\Media Factsheets or you can access it online here using your Greenford Google login. 

Read the Factsheet and complete the following questions/tasks:

1) What does the term 'Cultural Industries' actually refer to?

Creation, Production, and distribution of a cultural or artistic nature,

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

Broadcasting, Music industries, Video and computer games, Film industries.

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

They are in competition within one another

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

It is very risky, Big hits are very profitable.

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

There is no certain way to make sure they are successful.

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?

In my opinion, the media should have a mixture of both in order to have any benefit at all. In order to make nay profit the audience has to be satisfied with that they came across and the creativity of the media product determines that greatly. So whilst it is making profit it can also inspire people to learn things or develop ideas and more. Without a mixture of both it is a lose lose situation.

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

Vertical and horizontal integration.

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 think content creators, creative minds behind the media products are getting the correct amount of exploitation and appreciation from their target audience, because media is so public, everyone has access to it so even if a large handful of people doesn't appreciate a product there will be a handful that does. However, if the creators goal is to make profit they'd have to possibly lean away from what they prefer to do and create things that appeal to the mainstream audience. So yes it does reflect the inequalities because there is a chance that someone who works just as hard as another creator won't get enough or deserved recognition becase the cultural preference of one product is much greater than the next, Though that is the risk of becoming a media creator.

9) Listen and read the transcript to the opening 9 minutes of the Freakonomics podcast - No Hollywood Ending for the Visual-Effects Industry. Why has the visual effects industry suffered despite the huge budgets for most Hollywood movies?

The economics on visual effects changed dramatically and it has everything to do with tax incentives

10) What is commodification? 

The action of process of treating something as a mere commodity 

11) 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?

Yes, because the majority of media texts are to entertain the most popular want, need or preference purely because they need to profit on the creation from all of the production and pot production costs. Because of this minorities and different aspects of lief that aren't viewed as much or as "interesting" don't get as much recognition.

12) 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 believed the commodification of culture was a "long term and ambivalent process"  with "different stages and taking multiple forms". Digitalisation, Increased competition and Audience research. Digitalisation is important becase that means the company can branch out their product to more devices and apps etc and increase their audience accessibility. Increased competition is important because it doesn't make one company to powerful and possibly making things inconvenient for consumers. Audience research is important because a company needs to know and keep up with trend and prerfences for the target audience in order to keep up how often  they consume their product.