MIGRAIN: Hesmondhalgh - The Cultural Industries

 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?

societies that support the conditions where large companies, and their political allies, make money. These conditions being: constant demand for new products; minimal regulation outside of general competition law; relative political and economic stability; workforces that are willing to work hard.

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. As such, companies outdo each other to try and satisfy audience desires for the shocking, profane or rebellious.

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?

firstly, limited autonomy granted to symbol creators in the hope that they will create something original and distinctive; secondly, the cultural industry company is reliant on other cultural industry companies to make audiences aware of the existence of a new product or of the uses and pleasure that they might get from experiencing the product. Companies cannot completely control the publicity a product will receive, as judgments and reactions of audiences, critics and journalists etc. cannot accurately be predicted.

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 the media should definitely have lots of creativity and variations otherwise it will have not much views and audience to enjoy the media as there will be nothing that they like so in order to maintain and keep their audience they need to keep them entertained but moreover also maintain themselves and should also have profit otherwise they will not be getting anything in return if they don't get the profit they deserve so they may stop so it should be equal and both sides should have a reason to last and stay. 

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

Cultural industry companies minimise their risks and maximise their profits through vertical integration as they are able to produce and release their own work without having to pay a third party to do it for them meaning more of the profit will go back to the conglomerate instead of being split up between multiple groups.

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 agree they deserve all the credit and attention as much as the actors and shown  people in the media texts and without all of the creative people behind the scenes that the audience don't see is how much they have worker and the actors wouldn't even be known or anywhere without those people, so they definitely deserve all the recognition and should always be talked about the most if a very successful media text went viral. 

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?

In the early years of visual effects, there was a focus on finishing the work quickly. However, by the mid to late 2000's, the VFX studios had contracted with the film companies to make fixed contracts, which meant that even though the studios were making a lot of money on a film, they might not even be making any money at all.

10) What is commodification? 
Commodification is the process of changing everything into a product that can be purchased or sold

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 disagree as the more content the more diverse and variety in the content the more the audience will like and have lots of options to pick from that's only if the content is diverse and has a variety and a change and not all a few same cultures. 

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.

Cultural industries are no longer seen as second to the ‘real’ economy. Some are actually vast global businesses.

• Ownership and organisation of cultural industries is now much broader - the largest cultural companies now operate across a range of cultural industries (for example, TV, publishing and film).

• These large conglomerates are now connected in complex ways however there are also many small and medium sized companies who create cultural products. These companies are becoming increasingly connected with other medium and large cultural industries.