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?

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; workforce that are willing to work hard.

3) Why do some media products offer ideologies that challenge capitalism or inequalities in society?
This is because the cultural industry companies find is essential to compete with others to secure audience members. Therefore, the companies try to out compete each other and try to satisfy audience desires for the shocking, profane or rebellious.

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 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?

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 might get from experiencing the product. Companies cannot completely control the publicity a product will receive, as judgements and reactions of audiences, critics and journalists cannot accurately be predicted.

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 the ideal society, the creation of media would be purely for the sake of artistic expression and are made purely for the sake of being created and shared with everyone. However, in recent times, due to external shocks like inflation and the overall cost of everything increasing, more and more media is created for profit so that people can overall survive and live.

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 process of production, promotion and distribution help to create the product for their specific target audience, find the most efficient ways to promote this new product then distribute it. During production and distribution, businesses can find the ratio of costs between production and reproduction in order to maximise profit.

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?

Yes it does due to it reflecting current digital media  and  the societal trends. as a collecive 'woke' mindset is expected of digital products. It also does reflect the inequalities and injustices of wider society in terms on  of your level of wealth, gender or ethnicity .Although it shows the injustices, it also shows the justices which means the cultural industries don't fully reflect the inequalities and injustices.  Also, I agree that content creators should be better rewarded for their work as they put immense time and effort into the work and are ideally the brains behind the operation.

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 had been crushed by outside economic and political forces. The state of the industry was potentially putting those artists as risk and they could start to loose the art that they  were being recognised for at that time.

10) What is commodification? 

Turning everything into something that can be bought or sold.
Commodification is the transforming of objects and services into commodities, it involves producing 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?

I partially agree as media can shine a negative light on people with different ethnicities but I do not agree completely as I feel the media industry conveys a diverse curriculum. However, they can also go against 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.

Hesmondhalgh suggested the cultural industries have changed due to many reasons. For example, 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). This is one of the most important developments because without technology advancing , it would be much more difficult to view cultural content. 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. This is also one of the most significant points as when researching and looking into people's interests, you can narrow down the media that people actually enjoy and show it more which will grow the audience as it is popular and keep viewers entertained. Huge increase in the amount companies spend on advertising which has helped to fuel the growth of the cultural industries. Advertising is key as it allows the cultural industries to be known by more people. This also allows it to spread more and more which increases the audience.