What are cultural industries, and what distinguishes the value of their products from other industries?

Cultural industries are industries that produce and distribute cultural goods and services, including media, entertainment, and creative content. Their primary value lies in symbolic or aesthetic qualities rather than utilitarian function.

Why does Hesmondhalgh characterise cultural industries as high risk and unpredictable?

Because audience tastes are difficult to predict and most cultural products fail commercially.

Why is predicting commercial success particularly challenging in cultural industries compared to industries producing utilitarian goods?

Because the value of cultural products lies in symbolic or aesthetic qualities, making audience tastes difficult to predict, unlike utilitarian products where functional value is more measurable.

Define commodification in the context of cultural industries.

Commodification is the process by which cultural products and experiences are transformed into commodities that can be bought and sold in the marketplace.

How does commodification affect the priorities of cultural industries?

It involves assigning exchange value to creative works, which can lead to prioritising commercial success over artistic or cultural merit.

What is convergence in media industries?

Convergence refers to the coming together of previously distinct media technologies, industries, and platforms, enabling content to flow across multiple channels and devices.

AQA A-Level Media Studies 7572

Media Language

Topic overview Codes and conventions Constructing meaning through media language Genre, hybridity and intertextuality Viewpoints, ideology and audience interpretation Semiotics: signs and their types Semiotics: paradigm, syntagm and anchorage Barthes: denotation, connotation and myth Narratology: narrative codes and diegesis Todorov: equilibrium, disruption and new equilibrium Genre theory as summarised by Neale Structuralism: binary oppositions and mythemes Structuralism: ideological reading and deconstruction Postmodernism: pastiche, bricolage and implosion Baudrillard: simulacra, simulation and hyperreality

Media Representation

Topic overview Constructing representations Why producers make the representational choices they do Social and cultural context in representation Stereotypes: positive and negative use Under-representation and misrepresentation Representation, realism and the values it carries Industry contexts and representational choice Discourse, ideology and audience positioning Theories of representation: stereotypes and countertypes Theories of representation: misrepresentation and selective representation Theories of representation: ideology, hegemony and constructed reality Hall on representation: encoding and decoding Theories of identity as summarised by Gauntlett Feminist theories: the male gaze and patriarchy Feminist theories: van Zoonen and hooks Theories of gender performativity Theories around ethnicity and postcolonial theory

Media Industries

Topic overview Production, distribution and circulation Ownership and control Economics and funding of media industries Marketing and maintaining audiences Regulation of media in the UK Digital convergence and the individual producer Regulation in global production and circulation Curran and Seaton: regulation, deregulation and the free market Curran and Seaton: concentration, conglomerates and public service broadcasting Curran and Seaton: neo-liberalism, surveillance and privacy Curran and Seaton: the central argument Livingstone and Lunt: the public sphere and governance Livingstone and Lunt: media literacy Livingstone and Lunt: power, value and globalisation Cultural industries as summarised by Hesmondhalgh

Media Audiences

Topic overview Grouping and categorising audiences Targeting, attracting, reaching and addressing audiences Media technologies and patterns of consumption Mass and specialised audiences Niche and fan audiences Audience interpretation and its circumstances Media effects: uses and gratifications Media effects: hypodermic needle and moral panic Media effects: media literacy Bandura: social learning and imitation Cultivation theory: socialisation and the bardic function Gerbner: cultivation differential, mainstreaming and resonance Reception theory: agenda setting, framing and myth making Hall on reception: the three reading positions Fandom 'End of audience' theories

Contexts of the Media

Topic overview Social context Cultural context Economic context Political context Historical context Analysing media products in context

Media Forms and Products

Topic overview Advertising and marketing Music video Radio Newspapers Film as an industry Television Magazines Online, social and participatory media Video games

The Cross-Media Production and Assessment

Topic overview Close study products and how they are used The NEA brief and its requirements The Statement of Intent Applying the theoretical framework in production Producing across platforms for a specified audience Extended response and synopticity

Media Industries

Cultural industries as summarised by Hesmondhalgh

3 things to know
Media One and Media Two

Overview

Cultural industries as high risk, commodification, convergence, diversity, innovation, conglomeration, vertical integration and cultural imperialism.

What you need to know

Answer each one before you reveal it.

Your recallNot started

Who and when

How does Hesmondhalgh characterise the cultural industries?

Key term

What is commodification?

Evaluation

How do large corporations respond to the risk in cultural production?

Questions from this subtopic

Each one with the model answer underneath.

1
What are cultural industries, and what distinguishes the value of their products from other industries?
Model answer
Cultural industries are industries that produce and distribute cultural goods and services, including media, entertainment, and creative content. Their primary value lies in symbolic or aesthetic qualities rather than utilitarian function.
2
Why does Hesmondhalgh characterise cultural industries as high risk and unpredictable?
Model answer
Because audience tastes are difficult to predict and most cultural products fail commercially.
3
Why is predicting commercial success particularly challenging in cultural industries compared to industries producing utilitarian goods?
Model answer
Because the value of cultural products lies in symbolic or aesthetic qualities, making audience tastes difficult to predict, unlike utilitarian products where functional value is more measurable.
4
Define commodification in the context of cultural industries.
Model answer
Commodification is the process by which cultural products and experiences are transformed into commodities that can be bought and sold in the marketplace.
5
How does commodification affect the priorities of cultural industries?
Model answer
It involves assigning exchange value to creative works, which can lead to prioritising commercial success over artistic or cultural merit.
6
What is convergence in media industries?
Model answer
Convergence refers to the coming together of previously distinct media technologies, industries, and platforms, enabling content to flow across multiple channels and devices.

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Media Language

Media Representation

Media Industries

Media Audiences

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Postmodernism holds that the hierarchy has .

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AAccessing media forms the first component.

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Denotation means the literal, common-sense meaning of a sign.

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