Cultural Industries – Theory Assignment
The dominant traditions have an important role to many economies in terms of assessing change and continuity that involves the growth of prosperity and employment in the cultural industries. The process to determine the best solution may be complicated and tiresome as controversy surrounds these traditions. Profit generating and control may be the main reasons of these approaches, but they also carry an important characteristic in how society understands “the relationships between culture, society and economy.” (Hesmondhalgh, 2007, p.6) Many compare and contrast on whether political economy or cultural studies approaches are more useful towards the study of media and popular cultural. If both approaches can get past their differences, perhaps they may have the potential to work in harmony together in achieving the same goals.
When examining the power of cultural production, political economy is known to have stronger concepts than “cultural and media economics and, liberal-pluralist communications studies (Hesmondhalgh, 2007, p. 3...
In Highbrow, Lowbrow, Levine argues that a distinction between high and low culture that did not exist in the first half of the 19th century emerged by the turn of the century and solidified during the 20th century, and that despite a move in the last few decades toward a more ecumenical interpretation of “culture,” the distinction between high art and popular entertainment and the revering of a canon of sacred, inalterable cultural works persists. In the prologue Levine states that one of his central arguments is that concepts of cultural boundaries have changed over the period he treats. Throughout Highbrow, Lowbrow, Levine defines culture as a process rather than a fixed entity, and as a product of interactions between the past and the present.
The effects of the Cultural Revolution are seen on a nationwide level, with national trends and ideals rapidly changing
Over the centuries, the media has played a significant role in the shaping of societies across the globe. This is especially true of developed nations where media access is readily available to the average citizen. The media has contributed to the creation of ideologies and ideals within a society. The media has such an effect on social life, that a simple as a news story has the power to shake a nation. Because of this, governments around the world have made it their duty to be active in the regulation and control of media access in their countries. The media however, has quickly become dominated by major mega companies who own numerous television, radio and movie companies both nationally and internationally. The aim of these companies is to generate revenue and in order to do this they create and air shows that cater to popular demand. In doing so, they sometimes compromise on the quality of their content. This is where public broadcasters come into perspective.
An artistic achievement that can demonstrate that the United States is in its Golden Age is its very influential fast growing entertainment business, a business very important to the U.S. economic activity. The U.S. entertainment has been popular around the world globalizing U.S. pop culture and the U.S. entrainment business economy. This globalization is a result of new innovations, that the U.S. itself developed, that allows film, music, and television, to spread worldwide. Because the U.S. is generally first to have such innovations the entertainment is commonly considered better quality thus appealing to the masses of people. Other factors that lead to the huge success of its entertainment business include their methods of distribution, which is through large and powerful foreign companies, and their large English-speaking market potential. High market ability and general international appeal of the U.S. entertainment business has put the U.S. in a “Golden ...
The issue of the relationship between the mass media and the popular culture has always been a controversial issue in social sciences. The political economists insist on the role of the media industry in the creation of this phenomenon of the twentieth century. Though, advocates such as John Fiske, argue that popular culture is actually the creation of the populous itself, and is independent of the capitalist production process of the communication sector. Basing his argument on the immense interpretive power of the people, Fiske believes that the audience is able to break all the indented meanings within a media message. He also believes- by giving new meanings to that specific message they can oppose the power block that is trying to impose its ideology to the public. Consequently, this anarchistic activity of the audience creates the popular culture as a defence mechanism. Even when we accept Fiske’s ideas, we can not disregard the manipulative power of the media and its effects on cultural and social life.
“According to, Stuart Hall, “Cultural Studies: Two Paradigms” from Media, Culture and Society, Raymond Williams and E.P Thompson summarize about the way they saw culture, they refer it to the way of life and saw mainstream media as the main role in capitalist society. “Williams says that, his perspective and ideas are referred to culture as to social practice, he saw “culture as a whole way of life” and as to structuralism that makes the concept of
O’Shaughnessy, M., Stadler, J. (2009)Media and Society: An introduction. Dominant Ideology and Hegemony. London: Oxford.
“Culture” is a term that over the years, has taken many forms, served many purposes and has been defined in a variety of contexts. At the rise of the industrial era, inhabitants of rural areas began to migrate to cities, thus starting urbanization. As this new era began to unfold, urbanization, mass production, and modernization became key ingredients in the transformation of culture. As more people became literate and the production of mass media such as magazines, pamphlets, newspapers etc. increased, many had the option and desire to identify collectively – popular culture began to rise. Popular or “mass” culture can be described as a “dynamic, revolutionary force, breaking down the old barriers of class, tradition, taste, and dissolving
Stromback, J. and Esser, F. (2009) Shaping Politics: Mediatization and Media Interventionism, in Lundby, K (eds) Mediatization: Concept, changes, consequences. New York: Peter Lang Publishing, Inc, pp. 205-223.
Hartley, John (2002), Communication, Cultural and Media Studies: The Key Concepts, London, Routledge, pp. 19-21.
Adorno and Horkheimer (1975) used the expression ‘culture industry’ to describe the monopolisation of culture. “The entire practice of the culture industry transfers the profit motive naked onto cultural forms” (Adorno, 2001, P.99). Adorno and Horkheimer believed that Capitalism was mass-producing popular culture which was fuelling consumerist ideologies. It was demolishing the aesthetic values of art and art was no longer ‘arts for art’s sake’ and ‘purposelessness purposes’ prevailed (Held, 1980, P.93). Adorno (2001) argued that popular culture and art in capitalist societies were used for distraction and escapist purposes. The ‘Culture Industry’ was seen to assemble masses to participate in it’s ideology, which has profound social impacts. The monopolisation of culture exploits and manipulates mass population for social control and p...
Ott, B. L, & Mack, R. L. (2010). Critical media studies: An introduction. Malden, MA: Wiley-
Sinclair, John (2002) “Media and Communications : Theoretical Traditions”, in Stuart Cunningham and Graeme Turner (eds), The Media & Communications in Australia, Allen & Unwin, Sydney, pp.23-34.
Living in a modern time, our lives can hardly be separated from creativity and culture. Creative industries have increasingly influenced our daily lives, not just the products we use, but also the money we make. According to DCMS (2014), creative industries in Britain are worth more than £70 billion to its economy every year, not to mention creative industries in other countries. In the following, the seven economic properties as stated in Caves (2000) will be applied to the creative industry, ‘New Media’. ‘New Media’ is one of the nine creative industries proposed in the UNCTAD’s
The purpose of this essay is to firstly explain what John Fiske means by ‘popular culture lies not in the production of commodities so much as the productive use of industrial commodities’ (Fiske, J. 1990 p.28). Secondly this essay will go on to compare Fiske’s interpretation of popular culture to MacDonald’s theory of mass culture.