Hesmondhalgh - Cultural Industries

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

They 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
- work forces 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. They try think of stuff that would be shocking or profane to viewers.

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

- Risky business
- Creativity vs. commerce
- High production costs and low production costs
- Semi-public goods; the need to create scarcity

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

Risk stems from consumption and is made worse by 2 factors:
- Limited autonomy granted to symbol creators in hopes that they'll create something creative and/or distinctive
- 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'll get from experiencing a product

6) What is your opinion on the creativity vs. 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 feel like a mixture of both. Media products can be made for profit, but I feel that there should also be some meaning behind it - to make a successful and groundbreaking media product, you need a team of artistic people who really care about what they're doing; they're not just doing it for the money, but for passion and love. That is what I feel.

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

- Horizontal integration: buying up companies in the same sector to reduce competition for viewers and viewers' time.

- Vertical integration: buying up companies involved in different stages of the production and distribution process.

- Internationalism: Buying and partnering with other companies abroad allows companies to sell large numbers of extra copies of a text they have already produced at low cost (marketing costs).

- Multisectoral and multimedia integration: buying into other related areas of cultural industry production to ensure cross-promotion.

- Co-opting: partnering with celebrities and influencers to promote your product.

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'd agree to an extent. I'd say very strongly that content creators should be rewarded for their work, because they work tirelessly and effortlessly every day to provide media for their audiences to enjoy. So much work that doesn't get fully rewarded because companies like Google take most of the revenue from video.

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 due to rising costs and the structuring of the industry.

10) What is commodification? 

Commodification involves the transformation of objects and services into commodities. At its most basic level, it involves the production of things not only for use but also for exchange.

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?

It depends on how you look at it. Personally, I think that a lot of media texts accurately reflect the diversity of people and/or their opinions in society. But some people might think otherwise. Again, it depends a lot, because some get it right and execute it perfectly, while others represent it a little too much to the point of stereotyping.

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.

Many companies today merge and become global conglomerates, owning companies all over the world.

- Ownership and organisation of cultural industries is now much broader.

Lots of individuals can own and run businesses now; it's a lot easier than it was 20 or so years ago.

- Digitalisation, the internet and mobile phones have multiplied the ways audience can gain access to cultural content.

People can access media anywhere on a device that fits in their pocket. It has changed the way people experience media and the way it can be delivered to consumers.