Cultural Industries: blog task

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

• The 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?

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

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

• 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.
• There are also long standing expectations about what art and entertainment should do and challenging the various institutions of society is one of those expectations.

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

• Risky business
• Creativity vs commerce
• High production cost 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?

• Limited autonomy granted to symbol creators in the hope that they will create something original and distinctive
• Reliant on other cultural industry companies to make audiences aware of the existence of a new product or of the uses and pleasures they might get from experiencing the product
• Companies can't completely control the publicity a product will receive
• Audiences use cultural commodities in highly volatile and unpredictable ways.

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 believe that creativity is extremely important when it comes to media as audiences don't like to watch unoriginal recycled content however without making a profit those types of media won't be able to fund themselves which is why most media is made mainly for profit as being creative doesn't guarantee success while aiming for a profit may be more likely to guarantee returns.

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 that the way that the cultural industries operate reflects the inequalities of wider society as many of the people working in this industry don't get much recognition or payment while the actors who are the face of the movie gain all of the respect and attention of the audience similar to how in other industries the individuals working on the products would go relatively unknown even if the product itself were to be extremely successful.

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 with that argument as though it may have been true at one point in time as technology progresses more and more people are gaining access to a medium through which they can tell their own stories and with the creation of websites like YouTube they were then able to share their content to potentially millions of people. In modern day thanks to the internet you would be able to find content for niche subcultures, however if we are talking about mainstream media than I would agree that they fail to reflect the diversity of people as most mainstream media is still trying to make a profit and so would like to appeal to as many people as possible without potentially alienating a customer because the content they produced was too different to what they are used to.

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.
• Digitalisation, the internet and mobile phones have multiplied the ways audience can gain access to cultural content. This has made small scale production much easier for millions of people (think self-representation + prosumers).
• Powerful IT and technology companies now work with cultural industries to understand and produce cultural production & consumption. These companies (e.g. Apple, Microsoft, Google, Amazon) are now as powerful and influential in cultural industries as traditional companies such as News Corporation, Time Warner or Sony.
• Cultural products can now be shared across national borders. This increased the adaptation, reinvention and hybridity of genres and products. It also enables cultures to reaffirm their values, reducing the cultural influence of the USA.
• As cultural industries understand the growing role and influence of the audience there is greater emphasis on marketing and research. Cultural industries actively seek to find and address the niche audiences.
• Traditions of public ownership and regulation have been dismantled
• Huge increase in the amount companies spend on advertising which has helped to fuel the growth of the cultural industries.
• Cultural texts (films, programmes, records, print media, images etc) have been radically transformed. Promotional and advertising material now infiltrates areas and products more so than before. There are more products across a wider range of genres, across a wider range of forms of cultural activity that ever before. Various forms of cultural authority are increasing questioned and satirised.