The creation, production and distribution of products of cultural or artistic nature.
What does Hesmondhalgh identify regarding the societies in which the cultural are highly profitable?
Societies are encouraging cultural industries to become more successful ad profitable due to a public demand for ew technology and media content.
Why do some media products offer ideologies that challenge capitalism or inequalities in society?
The media is not regulated which means that media products which go against capitalism and inequalities in society are becoming more acceptable to the people. The media is also evolving, views are changing and people are not only sharing media to show one side of the argument but both sides. It acts as a sort of education to the public about the world today.
Look at page 2 of the factsheet. What are the problems that Hesmondhalgh identifies with regards to the cultural industries?
- Risky businesses
- Creativity versus commerce
- High production costs/ low reproduction costs
- Semi-public goods
Why are so many cultural industries a 'risky business' for the companies involved?
Audiences use cultural commodities in a highly volatile and unpredictable ways. Without a set way of using cultural commodities, it is hard for companies to work out a strategy to overcome this. In addition to risks stemming from the consumption which has been worsened by limited autonomy. cultural industry companies are being reliant on other culture industry companies to make audiences aware of their new products.
What is you 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 personally believe that media products should be see as a form of art as the creator takes his or her time to plan out and exert so much mental and physical energy to produced something for the people in the world to enjoy. The whole media product is made from their mind just like any other artist work. Drawings, paintings, music are all forms of art because they all come from someone's mind and heart. Although in society today, media is not put out for artistic expression but more for profit making, I hope that changes in the future.
How do cultural industry companies minimise their risks and maximise their profits? (Clue: your work on industries - ownership and control will help here).
Ways that industry companies minimise their risks and maximise their profits include:
- conglomerate ownership
- diversification
- integration
Industry companies buy over their competition in order to minimise risks because they now have one less competitor. Companies also expand and diversify so they don't have to outsource certain aspects of a media product ad can maximise profits by producing it internally.
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 believe that the person or people who gave the idea should be given more rewards and more recognition because it came from them after all. Without them, the company wouldn't have anything to put out in the first place. The only reason the creators had to go to a company to release their work is because they don't financially have the power to release their work. If they had the money, they could be doing exactly what the big companies are doing.
Listen and read the transcript to the opening 9 minutes of the Freakonomic podcast - No Hollywood Ending for the Casual-Effects Industry. Why has the visual effects industry suffered despite the huge budgets for most Hollywood movies?
The visual effects industry was initially a marketing point for films, however, as time goes on, it became more of a normality for film makers to use visual effects in movies to create realistic scenes or unrealistic scenes made realistic.
What is commodification?
Commodification is the action or process of treating something as a mere commodity (transformation of goods, services, ideas and people into objects of trade).
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 the argument that a huge number of media texts are created not to show how diverse we are but in order to solely earn profit. They put out things that people want to see which do not show the world what the true problem of todays society is. On the other hand, this does not apply to every media product being put out. For example, The Hate You Give is a film which concerns the problem of inequality towards black people in the world today. Movies like that is what we should be aiming to put out so that people can actually start thinking about these problems and how to solve them. People are always saying how we have equality now but truth is we don't. Day in day out we see racist, sexism etc. In major Hollywood films, most actors are white and most villains are played by black people. This again shows how diversity is clearly not shown in movies. Even the biggest movies aren't showing what the problem is, how can smaller movies with less power show it?
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.
- Formation of a group between strong IT and tech companies working with cultural industries. Companies such as Apple, Google, Microsoft are now more powerful maybe to the point they are equal to some traditional companies such as Sony or news corporation. I think that this is important because as time goes on, technology is evolving and becoming more accessible to the public meaning it is more often used compared to other ways.
- Digitalisation. The internet and mobile devices have allowed huge amounts of the population to gain access to different cultural content. I think that this is important because it means you only need 1 copy of something in order to let millions of people access it. For example, Netflix is a software that allows you to stream different series or movies. Although there is only 1 Netflix, they have huge numbers of users meaning that through that one software, millions of people are able to watch series and movies.
- Cultural industries are realising and understanding he growing role and influence of the audience there is greater emphasis on marketing and research. I think this is important because it shows that the production of media isn't solely for profit anymore. It allows more creativity and it allows differentiation within the same genre. Different movies are targeted at different demographics and psychographics.
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