David wrote a book called ‘The Cultural Studies’, and has a fourth edition out.

-David essentially says that unless you have a direct root to a specific creative career (family owning a company), your chances to get to work in the creative industries is quite low.

-“If you are poor, you won’t get as far”

–“more people seem to have wanted to work professionally in the cultural industries than have succeeded in do so“

-People always expect that working in the Creative Industry is easy and you will be very successful, which is not true, actually quite the opposite. Even if you have all the talent and qualifications needed, you are still not guaranteed a job. It is purely a coincidence. Money plays a massive part as well as popular culture.

–“As if ‘determination’ and ‘commitment’ were in themselves enough to secure success?”

“Creative Industry is a risky business”

Davis splits the Culture Industry into three categories: Production, Distribution and Consumption. Production is the product your have created- for example an artist or band creating a song. Distribution is the way in which you promote it, how you get the product to reach audiences- for example a PR major or someone in a job with advertising, where they can successfully get the song promoted. The last one, Consumption, is the people who listen to the product created, the audience.

It can be risky because without the consumption and distribution, the production isn’t that impressive. If an artist were to create a bad song, or the distribution wasn’t successful, the consumption wouldn’t thrive. Many people are involved in the consumption, for example, an artist brings out an album and it is distributed well, they decide to go on tour. You have people who go on tour with them looking after the lighting and instruments, you also have the staff at the venues looking after the place and making sure it is okay. The consumption heavily relies on the production, so if it doesn’t turn out successful, people with other jobs in distribution and consumption will be out of a job.

It is also heavily based off audience’s opinions. If people don’t like the song created, other people further down the chain will suffer more than the millionaire artist.

The Culture Industry is also risky because media products have limited consumption capacity. You wouldnt watch a movie multiple tiems

David Hesmondhalgh is a British Sociologist who is currently a professor of media, music and culture at the University of Leeds. He wrote a book called ‘Cultural Industries‘ published in 2002. He is acknowledged as a key figure in developing the “cultural industries” approach to media, which emphasises the complex and contradictory nature of cultural production under capitalism. A critical reflection highlights that there is a ‘myth‘ about how the creative industry really is and how much work they require. Leaving people vulnerable to the illusion that they will be a ‘star‘ if they have some sort of creative talent.

David states networking is also incredibly important in the industry, its all about who you know and who you have ties to. Without this it is much harder to achieve the spotlight, even if you are better or a hard worker.

‘for every individual who succeeds, there are many who do not. For many, it will be the result of a perfectly reasonable personal decision that the commitment and determination required is not for them’ (p. 20)

David also states that its a risky business. It is competitive as those are fighting for the spotlight but its also determined on the opinions of the audience or the producers. This means creative people are competing for the majority in order to be liked and successful.

The creative industry is divided into 3 groups:

Production– people who create thing e.g write a song, make a movie, make a painting.

Distribution– people who promote and market things to reach the target audience using advertisements.

Consumption– The audience consuming the information e.g by going to the cinema, going to a concert; to consume the product.

Key Quotes:

“the distinctive organisational form of the cultural industries has considerable implications for the conditions under which symbolic creativity is carried out“

“in its utopian presentation, creative work is now imagined only as a self-actualising pleasure, rather than a potentially arduous or problematic obligation undertaken through material necessity” (2009, p. 417)

Media buisnesses are reliant upon changing audience consumption patterns”– The media and creative industry is based off of audience preference, taste, and how audiences will react to productions.

Risk is minimized by many different things:

• ‘Fan culture’, if productions develop a strong, reliable and loyal fan base, producers can almost rely on a positive reaction from these consumers towards future productions.
• Marketing and advertising, the use of advertisement allows creative/ media products to gain the attention of their target audience
• Trying not to create a ‘monopoly’, often, large, worldwide companies such as ‘Disney’ and ‘Apple’ leave one aspect of production, distribution or consumption to a third party company in order to create a legal monopoly.
• Repetition; Producers stick to their strengths and create similar products time and time again to create a loyal fan base so that they don’t have to continue finding new target audience.

David Hesmondhalgh (British sociologist and Professor of Media, Music and Culture at the University of Leeds ) is among a range of academics who critically analyse the relationship between media work and the media industry. In his seminal book- The Culture Industries.

‘the distinctive organisational form of the cultural industries has considerable implications for the conditions under which symbolic creativity is carried out’

 in an article he wrote with Banks (Banks, M., & Hesmondhalgh, D. (2009). Looking for work in creative industries policy. International Journal of Cultural Policy. Saying…’there must be serious concerns about the extent to which this business-driven, economic agenda is compatible with the quality of working life and of human well-being in the creative industries.‘