1) What does the term 'Cultural Industries' actually refer to?
The term 'Cultural Industries' actually 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?
Hesmondhalgh identifies that the societies in which the cultural industries are highly profitable tend to be 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. However, Hesmondhalgh also identifies that in contemporary societies the cultural industries often produce texts that do not support these conditions. Instead, texts tend to offer ideologies which challenge capitalism or the inequalities of gender and racism 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. There are also longstanding social expectations about what art and entertainment should do, and challenging the various institutions of society is one of those expectations.
3) Why do some media products offer ideologies that challenge capitalism or inequalities in society?
Hesmondhalgh considers the way the cultural industries distribute and organise symbolic creativity (i.e. texts audiences consume) reflects extreme inequalities and injustices evident in capitalist societies. For instance, there are vast differences in terms of access to cultural industries in society, in terms of your level of wealth, gender or ethnicity. There are also inequalities in the ways symbol creators are treated. Even those who succeed in their work being accepted and widely circulated are often treated badly.
4) Look at page 2 of the factsheet. What are the problems that Hesmondhalgh identifies with regards to the cultural industries?
Risk derives from the fact that audiences use cultural commodities in highly volatile and unpredictable ways – often in order to express the view that they are different from other people.
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 that the media should be about both forming an artistic expression that play an important role in society and making profit because both of these elements of the media industry support each other and correlate to making new media more entertaining and more informative.
7) How do cultural industry companies minimise their risks and maximise their profits? (Clue: your work on Industries - Ownership and control will help here)
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 that the way cultural industries operate reflects the inequalities and injustices of wider society to an extent because sometimes the media mainly focuses on higher classes within society - in contrast to this media platforms such as the news do tend to cover information on wider society including coverage on different countries and their positive/negative happenings.
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 visual effects industry has suffered despite the huge budgets for most Hollywood movies because the company the man was working for- Rhythm and Hughes was going through bankruptcy/severe financial difficulties and many visual effects artists were protesting outside the Oscar's, saying that their industry was being "crushed". The state of the industry was bad and many workers were at risk of losing their job, even though the Box Office was high. A lot of people that were working on the visual effects in Life Of Pie had stopped working or moved to Canada.
10) What is commodification?
Hesmondhalgh discusses commodification in the cultural industries (turning everything into something that can be bought or sold). He suggests this creates problems on both the consumption and production side. For the production side, he points to certain areas of the cultural industries where people are not fairly rewarded.
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 with this argument to quite a large extent as often lower classes of society and young people aren't represented accurately. I also think the diversity in society is not accurately represented through the media and certain minorities are only represented in a negative way when given recognition in the media. The media mainly gives recognition to more higher class people and tend to focus on those who are more successful in life.
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 identifies that cultural industries have changed. They have become increasingly globalised as a result of digital media, new technology and inter-connectivity. As such, there is greater exchange of cultural goods and services across the countries and different cultures.
Digitalisation- the increase in technology, such as phones and laptops, allows audiences to gain access to cultural content.
The ownership and organisation of cultural industries is now much broader- the largest cultural companies now operate across a range of cultural industries, like TV and Film. These are conglomerates, which means that they have smaller companies producing cultural products as well.
Cultural texts have been radically transformed. Promotional and advertising material now infiltrates areas and products more so than before. Wider range of genres, across a wider range of forms of cultural activity than before
The term 'Cultural Industries' actually 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?
Hesmondhalgh identifies that the societies in which the cultural industries are highly profitable tend to be 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. However, Hesmondhalgh also identifies that in contemporary societies the cultural industries often produce texts that do not support these conditions. Instead, texts tend to offer ideologies which challenge capitalism or the inequalities of gender and racism 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. There are also longstanding social expectations about what art and entertainment should do, and challenging the various institutions of society is one of those expectations.
3) Why do some media products offer ideologies that challenge capitalism or inequalities in society?
Hesmondhalgh considers the way the cultural industries distribute and organise symbolic creativity (i.e. texts audiences consume) reflects extreme inequalities and injustices evident in capitalist societies. For instance, there are vast differences in terms of access to cultural industries in society, in terms of your level of wealth, gender or ethnicity. There are also inequalities in the ways symbol creators are treated. Even those who succeed in their work being accepted and widely circulated are often treated badly.
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
Risk derives from the fact that audiences use cultural commodities in highly volatile and unpredictable ways – often in order to express the view that they are different from other people.
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 that the media should be about both forming an artistic expression that play an important role in society and making profit because both of these elements of the media industry support each other and correlate to making new media more entertaining and more informative.
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 integration-Owning a range of businesses in the same production/distribution.
- Horizontal integration-Owning a range of media companies that are largely unrelated.
- Integration and Synergy-Series of media products derived from the same text or institution.
- Diversification- When a media company branches out into a different area of the industry.
- Cross-media regulation-When two companies merge.
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 that the way cultural industries operate reflects the inequalities and injustices of wider society to an extent because sometimes the media mainly focuses on higher classes within society - in contrast to this media platforms such as the news do tend to cover information on wider society including coverage on different countries and their positive/negative happenings.
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 visual effects industry has suffered despite the huge budgets for most Hollywood movies because the company the man was working for- Rhythm and Hughes was going through bankruptcy/severe financial difficulties and many visual effects artists were protesting outside the Oscar's, saying that their industry was being "crushed". The state of the industry was bad and many workers were at risk of losing their job, even though the Box Office was high. A lot of people that were working on the visual effects in Life Of Pie had stopped working or moved to Canada.
10) What is commodification?
Hesmondhalgh discusses commodification in the cultural industries (turning everything into something that can be bought or sold). He suggests this creates problems on both the consumption and production side. For the production side, he points to certain areas of the cultural industries where people are not fairly rewarded.
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 with this argument to quite a large extent as often lower classes of society and young people aren't represented accurately. I also think the diversity in society is not accurately represented through the media and certain minorities are only represented in a negative way when given recognition in the media. The media mainly gives recognition to more higher class people and tend to focus on those who are more successful in life.
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 identifies that cultural industries have changed. They have become increasingly globalised as a result of digital media, new technology and inter-connectivity. As such, there is greater exchange of cultural goods and services across the countries and different cultures.
Digitalisation- the increase in technology, such as phones and laptops, allows audiences to gain access to cultural content.
The ownership and organisation of cultural industries is now much broader- the largest cultural companies now operate across a range of cultural industries, like TV and Film. These are conglomerates, which means that they have smaller companies producing cultural products as well.
Cultural texts have been radically transformed. Promotional and advertising material now infiltrates areas and products more so than before. Wider range of genres, across a wider range of forms of cultural activity than before
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