Cultural Industries

Cultural industries 
 1) What does the term 'Cultural Industries' actually refer to?
The notion of cultural industries generally includes textual, music, television, and film production and publishing, as well as crafts and designs.  


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. Hesmondhalgh also identifies that in contemporary societies the cultural industries often produce texts that do not support these conditions.

3) Why do some media products offer ideologies that challenge capitalism or inequalities in society?
texts tend to offer ideologies which challenge capitalism or the inequalities of gender and racism in society. This happens because the cultural industry companies need to continuously compete with each other to secure audience members.

4) Look at page 2 of the factsheet. What are the problems that Hesmondhalgh identifies with regards to the cultural industries?
Problems
Risky business mk
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?
Risk derives from the fact that audiences use cultural commodities in highly volatile and unpredictable ways. Companies cannot completely control the publicity a product will receive, as judgments and reactions of audiences, critics and journalists etc. cannot accurately be predicted. It may be difficult to achieve high levels of profit for independent or individual companies

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?
Long held that there should be an opposition between creativity and knowledge, and commerce. This has had the effect of generating a set of tensions.The creativity/ commerce tension helps to generate the relative and provisional autonomy that many symbol makers attain Adds to the uncertainty

7) How do cultural industry companies minimise their risks and maximise their profits? (Clue: your work on Industries - Ownership and control will help here) 
Most cultural commodities have high fixed costs and low variable costs. the high ratio of fixed costs to variable costs in the cultural industries means that big hits are extremely profitable.

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 believe media products should be rewarded for their work, as they try to reduce the inequalities and injustices in wider society, however as 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. For instance, there are vast differences in terms of access to cultural industries in society, in terms of your level of wealth, gender or ethnicity.


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?
People from different ethnicity don't like the use of Visual effects as it goes against their values and morals as they find it extremely disrespectful. 

10) What is commodification? 

Turning everything into something that can be bought or sold. He suggests this creates problems 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? 
I agree with this statement since not many media text reach a wide audience in the society. Many teenagers in the digital age rarely view media texts unless its relevant to them. Therefore, people's opinions are not generated through media text meaning the society does not reflect diversity among adults neither teenagers. 
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.

These large conglomerates are now connected in complex ways however there are also many small and medium sized companies who create cultural products. These companies are becoming increasingly connected with other medium and large cultural industries. 

Cultural products can now be shared across national borders. This increased the adaptation, reinvention and hybridity of genres and products. 

Cultural texts (films, programmes, records, print media, images etc) have been radically transformed. Promotional and advertising material now infiltrates areas and products more so than before.