Cultural Industries: Blog Task

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?
That they societies tend to support the condition where large companies, and their political allies make money.

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

Because the cultural industry companies need to continuously compete with each other to secure audience members so they try to outdo each other by attempting to satisfy the audiences desire for the shocking, profane and rebellious.

4) Look at page 2 of the factsheet. What are the problems that Hesmondhalgh identifies with regards to the cultural industries?

Cultural Industries can be a risky business, are "Creativity versus commerce", have high production costs and low reproduction costs and there is a need to create security.

5) Why are so many cultural industries a 'risky business' for the companies involved?

There is limited autonomy granted to symbol creators in the hope that they will create something original and distinctive, and the cultural industry is reliant on others in order to make audiences aware of new products and the pleasures derived from them.

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?

The cultural Industries operates in a way that it reflects the inequalities and injustices of wider society. This is apparent when viewing channels like Channel 4, which exists to stand against the norms of society and talk about topics no-one else does. Content creators should indeed be better rewarded for their work as they put in the time and effort in order to create that content to be viewed.

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 has suffered due to tax incentives, economic forces and political forces.

10) What is commodification? 

The transformation of goods, services, ideas, nature, personal information etc. into objects of trade.

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 I agree with this as most media texts created actually go against diversity and the overall opinion of the wider society. However, there also relevant media texts created that not only go against the norm of majority of media texts, but actually reflect the opinion of wider society and the diversity of it i.e. Channel 4

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.

Powerful IT and technology companies now work with cultural industries, this is important because technology is changing and evolving at fast speeds, meaning that media texts produced will be of better quality then that of the last. Companies spend more and more on advertising which has helped with the growth and recognisability of the cultural industry.