David Hesmondhalgh is a British sociologist. He is currently Professor of Media, Music and Culture at the University of Leeds. His research focusses on the media and cultural industries, critical approaches to media in the digital age, and the sociology of music.

Hesmondhalgh Theory:

Hesmondhalgh argues that major cultural organisations create products for different industries in order to maximise chances of commercial success.

Most products are consumed when used and have to be bought again, but media products are bought once and continually used – they never wear out. So, companies have to make a lot of money out of their products initially, because they don’t often resell the same product repeatedly.

His books include The Cultural Industries, first published in 2002, described by Herbert et al. 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. He is frequently named as one of the leading analysts of cultural labour, partly based on his book Creative Labour, co-written with Sarah Baker

In his book, he also talks about the relationship between media work, media workers and the media industries.

Hesmondhalgh states that going into the cultural/media industry is a risky business.

“All business is risky” “but the cultural industries constitute a particularly risky business”

Production – Distribution – Consumption

• The media industry is reliant on marketing and publicity functions.
• Media businesses are reliant upon changing audience consumption patterns.
• Media products have limited consumption capacity.

The internet is dominated by a relatively small number of suppliers. Hesmondhalgh points to the dominance of search engines and their ability to point users to a small number of sources.