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Cultural Industries: blog task

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

The concept of cultural industries or creative industries embraces industries that combine the production and commercialisation of creative content which can have the form of a good service.

2) What does Hesmondhalgh identify regarding the societies in which the cultural industries are highly profitable?

Societies who have profitable cultural industries are more dominated by large business    

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

Because they consistently need to compete with each other trying to become more dominate then the other products 

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?

Firstly, limited autonomy granted to symbol creators in the hope that they will create something original and distinctive; secondly, 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 judgments and reactions of audiences, critics and journalists
etc. 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?

I believe the media shouldn't all be about profit as they give information to the public they should focus on what's more important in the world and what the public should know instead of how they will benefit financially from this news being put out. This is very important as the public trust the media as they give out information and entertainment therefore they play a 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) 

They use vertical integration and horizontal integration to reduce risk this allows them to branch out to other industries by owning them creating new type of entertainment for the public. 

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 don't believe that they deserve a good reward as they focus on money and profit more and don't really care about inequalities and injustices for a wider society

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?

They went bankrupt therefore resulted into protest from the visual effect artists just outside of the Oscars saying there industry is finished  

10) What is commodification? 

Turning everything into something which can be sold or bought this may create a problem on both the consumption and production side 

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?

Yes as they have failed as if they don't really care about the diversity of people they just reinforces the stereotype of the people and try and use it to portray a more innocent effect on them i think this is strategic as it allows them to receive publicity making them loads of money    

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.

When Hesmondhalgh evaluates the changing social significance of the cultural industries, he considers commodification. This involves the transforming of objects and services into commodities. At its most basic level, it involves producing things not only for use, but also for exchange. Hesmondhalgh identifies some issues with commodification and how it can be judged or evaluated. There is the problem on the consumption side that commodification spreads the idea that owning something or holding property of something gives you the right to exclude others. Hesmondhalgh considers the way the cultural industries distribute and organise symbolic creativity (i.e. texts audiences consume) reflects extreme inequalities and injustices evident in capitalist societies. Hesmondhalgh identifies the place of the cultural industries in economies, and considers contemporary cultural industries to be complex professional.

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