Cultural industries blog task

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

The term refers to the production, creation and distribution of products from an artistic or cultural nature. It can also include film production which relates to television.

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

Societies in which the cultural industries are very profitable are often societies which support the respective companies allowing them to make money, this is because they side with the companies political views or opinions. Another reason is because societies fulfil demands for new products helping the business generate money.

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

This occurs because cultural industry companies find the need to constantly compete with other companies in order to secure audience members. This is why companies will go to lengths in order to promote different ideologies in an attempt to satisfy an audiences desires.

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

Some problems involve risky business, creativity vs commerce, production costs which are inflated and the need to create scarcity or a demand.

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

 Many cultural industries are a risky business because risk is generated through the fact that audiences use cultural commodities in ways that are unpredictable, this is because audiences want to differ from one another. Moreover, companies become reliant on other cultural industry companies to promote/raise awareness of a new product, this generates a lot of risk because companies cannot control the amount of publicity a product will receive.

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?

Personally I believe that media products should have both creativity in mind and commerce in mind, they should have creativity in mind because this would allow them to stand out from the competition and other media products while also allowing the audience to become satisfied as the product is unique and enticing whereas if creativity wasn't in mind then the quality of the product would be poor. Commerce should also be in mind because unless the company is an oligopoly they need the money in order to survive the harsh conditions of the market and in order to reproduce and create other media products in the long run. These two factors should be moderately balanced in order to create a media product which is decent enough in quality which can satisfy audiences while also generating revenue for the company.

7) How do cultural industry companies minimise their risks and maximise their profits? 

Companies minimise their risk and maximise their profits via having a ratio between production and reproduction costs, by having a high ratio of fixed costs and a variable cost ratio cultural industries are able to ensure that big hits are extemely 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 that content creators are extremely undervalued in todays society and are not paid enough for the quality content that they produce which large audiences consume. Many companies pay their media product creators very little for example spotify which only pays creators between $0.003 and $0.005 per stream which is mediocre. This also means that a single song needs to be listened to over a 1000 times just for the creator to create a single dollar which is unfair towards the creators whereas the company simply takes away all the profit and keeps it for themselves. Large conglomerate companies completely disregard their content creators and this is a serious problem which needs to be addressed because these media products take many man-hours and a lot of effort to produce yet creators are not recognised for their talents.

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 took a big hit because even though the huge budget was spent on visual effects due to people/the audience demanding for a more realistic effect. VFX requires a lot of time and a lot of patience and this can be seen through director Singer talking about how creating VFX "takes a lot of time and engineers and brilliant, brilliant men and women who sit at computers for hours and hours and days and months to create a simple singl effect at some points" revealing that VFX is not a simple task which is why although budgets are high VFX has taken a hit. 

10) What is commodification? 

Commodification is the act of changing objects into things which can be commercially sold and bought.

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 personally believe that if you squint with your eyes closed and look at a singular media product for example one movie then it will fail to reflect the diversity of people and wider society however if you view all media products as a collective then the argument can be proven false because each media product has individual views and focuses which is why they are all different to each other and represent different minorities.

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.

One significant development would be digitization as this allows for media products to be digitized meaning they can be viewed and distributed throughout the whole world and to any audience with an internet connection.

Another important development is how cultural products can now be shared across national borers, not only does this increase reinvention of genre but it enables cultures to reaffirm their values.

A final important development would be the huge increase in the amount of which companies are able to spend on advertising which has allowed for the exponential growth of many cultural industries.