The Cultural Industries
The Cultural Industries
Read the Factsheet and complete the following questions/tasks:
1) What does the term 'Cultural Industries' actually refer to?
--> 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?
-->Cultural Industries is seen as adding value to society and individuals, as they focus on intellectual property and are knowledge-based and require a large number of people in their production which will, therefore, create employment and wealth. They are also highly profitable as they tend to be societies that support the conditions where large companies, and their political allies make money. Hesmondhalgh discusses the effect of the cultural industries on audiences and he identifies that the societies with more profitable cultural industries, tend to be controlled by larger media conglomerates, have minimal government regulation and show a significant difference between the rich and the poor
3) Why do some media products offer ideologies that challenge capitalism or inequalities in society?
-->This happens because the cultural industries often produce texts that do not support these conditions instead text tend to offer ideologies which challenge capitalism or the inequalities of gender and racism in society.
4) Look at page 2 of the factsheet. What are the problems that Hesmondhalgh identifies with regards to the cultural industries?
5) Why are so many cultural industries a 'risky business' for the companies involved?
--> This may be because some of the cultural industries are reliant on other cultural industries, both on success and downfall, a blatant example being the newspaper industry, as there isn't a need for it is people have their mobile phones to read the news from. Also, there may be a new product which may provide the audience with more of a gratification
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 plays an important role in society?
--> I think that media products should be a form of artistic expression as if a product is good in artisitic value and expresses a positive message or expresses a important message then it is likely to create profit anyway. A good artistic product will automatically create profits and therefore media products should be more focused on creating a good artistic product instead of milking out a product for profit.
7) How do cultural industry companies minimise their risks and maximise their profits? (Clue: your work on Industries - Ownership, and control will help here)
--> A company can do multiple things to maximise profits and minimise risks such as having vertical and horizontal integration. Owning other businesses in their line of work such as distributors will help a business maximise profits as they won't need to pay other companies to distribute their product and instead can do it themselves. Companies can also minimise their risks by buying and owning other companies similar to their line of work e.g. owning a radio station if you are Disney. This will ensure that the company still receives money from other lines of work if their main source crashes.
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?
--> Yes I agree to an extent that cultural industries do highlight the inequalities and injustices in society, however, there are also companies which take advantage of this and use it to create profit instead of sending a message. Producers and scriptwriters for these media works are normally ignored and the praise normally is given to the actors or the company themselves.
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?
-->
10) What is commodification?
--> Commodification is turning something e.g. turning a media product into something that can be bought (a film).
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?
--> I agree and disagree with this argument as there have been examples to express both sides of this argument. For example, newspapers have been known in the past to target the Muslim community and label them as 'terrorists' and a 'threat to society' whereas other media texts don't label all of them as terrorists instead highlight the point and threat of terrorists in general and how they are not all Muslims. Another example when media texts highlight the diversity of people is in film such as Moonlight which highlights the struggles of someone who is gay and that grew up in a black community.
1) What does the term 'Cultural Industries' actually refer to?
--> 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?
-->Cultural Industries is seen as adding value to society and individuals, as they focus on intellectual property and are knowledge-based and require a large number of people in their production which will, therefore, create employment and wealth. They are also highly profitable as they tend to be societies that support the conditions where large companies, and their political allies make money. Hesmondhalgh discusses the effect of the cultural industries on audiences and he identifies that the societies with more profitable cultural industries, tend to be controlled by larger media conglomerates, have minimal government regulation and show a significant difference between the rich and the poor
3) Why do some media products offer ideologies that challenge capitalism or inequalities in society?
-->This happens because the cultural industries often produce texts that do not support these conditions instead text tend to offer ideologies which challenge capitalism or the inequalities of gender and racism in society.
4) Look at page 2 of the factsheet. What are the problems that Hesmondhalgh identifies with regards to the cultural industries?
- Risky business
- Creativity versus commerce
- High Production costs and low reproduction costs
- Semi-public goods: the need to create scarcity
5) Why are so many cultural industries a 'risky business' for the companies involved?
--> This may be because some of the cultural industries are reliant on other cultural industries, both on success and downfall, a blatant example being the newspaper industry, as there isn't a need for it is people have their mobile phones to read the news from. Also, there may be a new product which may provide the audience with more of a gratification
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 plays an important role in society?
--> I think that media products should be a form of artistic expression as if a product is good in artisitic value and expresses a positive message or expresses a important message then it is likely to create profit anyway. A good artistic product will automatically create profits and therefore media products should be more focused on creating a good artistic product instead of milking out a product for profit.
7) How do cultural industry companies minimise their risks and maximise their profits? (Clue: your work on Industries - Ownership, and control will help here)
--> A company can do multiple things to maximise profits and minimise risks such as having vertical and horizontal integration. Owning other businesses in their line of work such as distributors will help a business maximise profits as they won't need to pay other companies to distribute their product and instead can do it themselves. Companies can also minimise their risks by buying and owning other companies similar to their line of work e.g. owning a radio station if you are Disney. This will ensure that the company still receives money from other lines of work if their main source crashes.
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?
--> Yes I agree to an extent that cultural industries do highlight the inequalities and injustices in society, however, there are also companies which take advantage of this and use it to create profit instead of sending a message. Producers and scriptwriters for these media works are normally ignored and the praise normally is given to the actors or the company themselves.
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?
-->
10) What is commodification?
--> Commodification is turning something e.g. turning a media product into something that can be bought (a film).
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?
--> I agree and disagree with this argument as there have been examples to express both sides of this argument. For example, newspapers have been known in the past to target the Muslim community and label them as 'terrorists' and a 'threat to society' whereas other media texts don't label all of them as terrorists instead highlight the point and threat of terrorists in general and how they are not all Muslims. Another example when media texts highlight the diversity of people is in film such as Moonlight which highlights the struggles of someone who is gay and that grew up in a black community.
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