Cultural industries
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?
2) What does Hesmondhalgh identify regarding the societies in which the cultural industries are highly profitable?
3) Why do some media products offer ideologies that challenge capitalism or inequalities in society?
4) Look at page 2 of the factsheet. What are the problems that Hesmondhalgh identifies with regards to the cultural industries?
5) Why are so many cultural industries a 'risky business' for the companies involved?
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?
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?
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?
10) What is commodification?
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?
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.
Read the Factsheet and complete the following questions/tasks:
1) What does the term 'Cultural Industries' actually refer to?
2) What does Hesmondhalgh identify regarding the societies in which the cultural industries are highly profitable?
3) Why do some media products offer ideologies that challenge capitalism or inequalities in society?
4) Look at page 2 of the factsheet. What are the problems that Hesmondhalgh identifies with regards to the cultural industries?
5) Why are so many cultural industries a 'risky business' for the companies involved?
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?
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?
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?
10) What is commodification?
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?
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.
1) The cultural industries : broadcast (radio and TV), film, text(newspaper), video games, advertising, and music.
2) Hesmondhalgh discusses the effect of the cultural industries on audiences and identifies that communities with more profitable cultural industries, are usually controlled by bigger media conglomerates, have minimal government regulation and show a significant differences between the rich and poor.
3) This happens because the cultural industry needs to continuously compete with each other in order to secure audiences. While doing this, they attempt to satisfy the audiences wants and needs to watch more rebellious content.
2) Hesmondhalgh discusses the effect of the cultural industries on audiences and identifies that communities with more profitable cultural industries, are usually controlled by bigger media conglomerates, have minimal government regulation and show a significant differences between the rich and poor.
3) This happens because the cultural industry needs to continuously compete with each other in order to secure audiences. While doing this, they attempt to satisfy the audiences wants and needs to watch more rebellious content.
4) Problems that Hesmondhalgh has found is that: it is a risky business, people are more interested in making money than the artistic value of content, that there are high production costs, small return of profits,
5) This may be because some of the cultural industries are reliant on other cultural industries, both on success and downfall, an example being the newspaper industry, as there isn't a need for it is people have their mobile phones and tablets to read the news from. The news is also easily accessible on the internet for free.
6) I think that cultural industries should really be creating products for the artistic value, money should just be an added reward. Whilst the desire for money is understandable, it should a priority to make the media product with good quality.
7) A Media company may maximize their profits by owning many different businesses, also known a vertical integration. The advantage of them doing this is that the media company will reach a broader audiences, meaning that there are more opportunities for businesses to generate more revenue. Also, the fact that one media company may own multiple other businesses contribute to the horizontal and vertical integration.
8) i agree and disagree with the statement due to the fact that i believe that there are enough people in the media who create media products, based on the injustices of life, although there are also journalists who overshadow more important stories for the generic and thoughtless article. An example of this is Prince Harry's engagement overshadowing the fact that it has been 6 month and there are till victims of the Grenfell Tower Fire who have still not been given appropriate housing, despite the 6 month anniversary of the disaster coming.
10) Commodification is turning something,in this case, it could be a media product, into something that can be traded, bought and sold.
11) I agree and disagree due to the fact that there have been examples in the past of current affairs where newspapers have offered the same viewpoints or the same overall message. Referring back to Prince Harry's engagement, many newspapers were acknowledging the fact that this had happened and just said congratulations to him, instead of giving an effect of what this may determine for the royal family. Although, it can be argued that there is diversity in media products as that is why we have left-wing and right- wing newspapers and news shows, for diverse and different arguments, therefore the media is quite diverse.
5) This may be because some of the cultural industries are reliant on other cultural industries, both on success and downfall, an example being the newspaper industry, as there isn't a need for it is people have their mobile phones and tablets to read the news from. The news is also easily accessible on the internet for free.
6) I think that cultural industries should really be creating products for the artistic value, money should just be an added reward. Whilst the desire for money is understandable, it should a priority to make the media product with good quality.
7) A Media company may maximize their profits by owning many different businesses, also known a vertical integration. The advantage of them doing this is that the media company will reach a broader audiences, meaning that there are more opportunities for businesses to generate more revenue. Also, the fact that one media company may own multiple other businesses contribute to the horizontal and vertical integration.
8) i agree and disagree with the statement due to the fact that i believe that there are enough people in the media who create media products, based on the injustices of life, although there are also journalists who overshadow more important stories for the generic and thoughtless article. An example of this is Prince Harry's engagement overshadowing the fact that it has been 6 month and there are till victims of the Grenfell Tower Fire who have still not been given appropriate housing, despite the 6 month anniversary of the disaster coming.
10) Commodification is turning something,in this case, it could be a media product, into something that can be traded, bought and sold.
11) I agree and disagree due to the fact that there have been examples in the past of current affairs where newspapers have offered the same viewpoints or the same overall message. Referring back to Prince Harry's engagement, many newspapers were acknowledging the fact that this had happened and just said congratulations to him, instead of giving an effect of what this may determine for the royal family. Although, it can be argued that there is diversity in media products as that is why we have left-wing and right- wing newspapers and news shows, for diverse and different arguments, therefore the media is quite diverse.
