Cultural Industries: blog task

-

 Cultural Industries: blog task


Go to our Media Factsheet archive and open Factsheet 168: David Hesmondhalgh’s ‘The Cultural Industries’. Our Media Factsheet archive is on the Media Shared drive: M:\Resources\A Level\Media Factsheets or you can access it online here using your Greenford Google login. 

Read the Factsheet and complete the following questions/tasks:

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

It refers 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?

They tend to be societies that support the conidtions where large companies, and their political allies, make money.

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

This happens because the cultural industry companies need to continuously compete with each other to secure audience members, so they outdo each other to try and 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 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?

It could be risky because audiences tend to use cultural commodities in highly volatile and unpredictable ways- often in order to express the view that they are different from others  

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?

There should be a balance. Industries still need to make money however that should not be their main goal. Media products should still have a sense of artistic expression

7) How do cultural industry companies minimise their risks and maximise their profits? (Clue: your work on Industries - Ownership and control will help here) 

Cult industry companies minimise their risks and maximise their profits through utilising techniques such as vertical integration, and horizontal integration

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 I agree with this. I beleive rewarding the creative minds behind these products would also incentive them to  continue to make new and innovative media products and it is also morally correct to  do so.

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?

An unfair distrubution of profit

10) What is commodification? 

The process of something turned into a marketable good, or commodity of value able to be sold to an audience

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 that media texts fail to reflect some demographics of society in general for example opinions that exist in wider society. However, the shift toward a more inclusive media production is increasingly imminent, and ongoing efforts are needed to continue widening representation.

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.

New technology allows for wider communication and new societal opinions are forming so more people want the media to reflect what they think.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

MIGRAIN: Audience theory 1

-
Image
Audience theory 1: blog tasks Hypodermic needle model 1) Read this  Mail Online article about the effects of videogames . How does this article link to the hypodermic needle model?  " Prof Bushman said: 'People who have a steady diet of playing these violent games may come to see the world as a hostile and violent place" This reminds me of the "mean world syndrome" which links with the hypodermic needle theory, which shows how the media affects our brain and thinking of the world 2) How does coverage of the Talk Talk hacking case (see Daily Mail front page below) link to the hypodermic needle model? Why might someone  criticise  this front page?  Some may say there was no reason to include "son of a single mother" and "violent video game addict" since it paints a negative view of these two demographics (single parents and gamers) . It links to the hypodermic needle since because of this people's views on single mothers and video gamers ma...
Read more

MIGRAIN: Semiotics blog tasks

-
Image
  1) What meanings are the audience encouraged to take about the two main characters from the opening of the film? The audience are encouraged to think of the two main characters as troublemakers who are up to no good 2) How does the end of the film emphasise de Saussure’s belief that signs are polysemic – open to interpretation or more than one meaning? During the beginning, the audience was encouraged to take the two main characters as troublemakers who were delinquents because of the signs given. Near to the end we find out the two main characters are deaf, and are not delinquents and this shows how signs are polysemic 1) What did Ferdinand de Saussure suggest are the two parts that make up a sign? The signifier - the thing that does the communication  The signified - that which is communicated 2) What does ‘polysemy’ mean? It means something has many meanings 3) What does Barthes mean when he suggests signs can become ‘naturalised’? This is when we see something and we nev...
Read more

My media consumption

-
  Newspapers Which daily newspapers (if any) do you read?  Not applicable What sections of newspapers do you turn to first, and why?  Not applicable What sections do you never read, and why?  Not applicable What kinds of stories do you usually read and why?  Not applicable Do you, or someone else, buy the newspaper you read?  Not applicable Do you look at the online versions of any newspapers? Which newspapers? Why do you visit their website and not others?  Not applicable Magazines What magazines (if any) do you buy regularly?  Why/why not?  Not applicable What sections of the magazines do you read and not read, and why?  Not applicable Television Approximately how many hours a week do you spend watching television?  3 hours, I sometimes watch an episode of a show that would be around an hour long 3 times a week. What device do you use to watch television?  My personal computer and phone mostly What times of day do you usually...
Read more