MIGRAIN: The Cultural Industries

One of the most important aspects of the Industries key concept is how the cultural industries are structured and the influence they have in society.

Academic and media theorist David Hesmondhalgh has written extensively about the Cultural Industries and A Level Media students need to develop an understanding of his work.

Cultural Industries: notes

Hesmondhalgh discusses the way the cultural industries operate and explores their effect on audiences: “Of one thing there can be no doubt: the media do have influence.”

He points out that societies with profitable cultural industries (e.g. USA, UK) tend to be dominated by large companies, have minimal government regulation and significant inequality between rich and poor.

Do cultural industries reinforce these conditions?

The cultural industries: a risky business

Hesmondhalgh acknowledges that media companies are operating a risky business. There is no guarantee a creative product will be a success.

They offset this risk both creatively and through business structure. In terms of media products, they use stars, sequels and well-known genres.

In terms of business, they use vertical integration and diversification to spread their risk and maximise profit.

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.

Hesmondhalgh: diversity in the media

Hesmondhalgh has explored whether the cultural industries truly reflect the diversity of people and society.

Hesmondhalgh references Mosco (1996): “There is a difference between multiplicity – a large number of voices – and diversity – whether or not these voices are actually offering different things from each other.”

Despite their size, are the cultural industries dominated by a narrow range of values and ideologies?

Cultural Industries: blog task

Go to our Media Factsheet archive on the Media Shared drive and open Factsheet 168: David Hesmondhalgh’s ‘The Cultural Industries’. Our Media Factsheet archive is on the Media Shared drive: M:\Resources\A Level\Media Factsheets

Read the Factsheet and complete the following questions/tasks:

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

culture industries refer to text which show culture or artistic value.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

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

media products offer ideologies that challenge capitalism or inequalities in society because they don't want you to keep a biased opinion so they show both the sides.

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?

They are a risky business because companies cannot control the judgement that they get from the audiences.

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?

in my opinion the media should be more creative and that media products are the best way to give or show a message to the audience.

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

the companies minimise their risk and maximise their profits by showing content which is more original and is something related to everyone's life

.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 with this statement and I believe the person should be awarded for the media content that they are presenting us.

9) What is commodification? 

commodification means making things which are only useful and are easily exchangeable.

10) 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?

yes I agree with this statement because everyone has a different opinion to each other which can because of their backgrounds and race so we cannot have the opinion or something which is agreed by everyone.

11) 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 have developed into a much more globalised because of the technology becoming more Better with connection that they have built with the people through the digital technology with news and social media.