Racial otherness- Gilroy’s study of black representation ‘There ain’t no black in the union jack’ – focuses on the story of UK race relationships from WW2.

• The immigration from the west indies caused anxieties.

Post-colonial melancholia- Substandard living conditions produced racial representations. There were intensified fears that immigrant communities would fill up Britain.

• Underlying presence within print media during 1970s-80s arguing that criminalised reputations of black males often stigmatised the black community.
• Wrote the book ” There ain’t no black in the union jack”
  about the anxieties regarding immigrant behaviour in the UK after WW2 – in which post-war wave of immigration from the West Indies.
• Draws attention to “Lurid newspaper reports of black pimps living off immoral earnings of white women”
• Produced racial representations that were “fixed in a matrix between the imagery of squalor and that of sordid sexuality”

• WW2 immigrants were seen as an alien ‘other’ to an imagined white Britishness.
  Black immigrants were perceived to be ‘swamping’ white communities.
• Black communities were demonised through the representations that associated them with individual acts of criminality – knife crime and muggings were particular media concerns.
• These representations construct a ‘common sense’ notion of the criminal black male.
• Later representations constructed the black community in general, and black youths in particular, to be naturally lawless and incompatible with British white values.
  

Cultural industries- the different types of popular media, produces, distributes products in the creative arts generally in favour of popularity

Production- the making of a form of media

Distribution- The methods by which media products are delivered to audiences, including the marketing campaign

Exhibition/ consumption- the retail branch of the film industry/ when the media is taken in by individuals or a group

Media concentration- the ownership of mass media by fewer individuals

Conglomerates- a group that owns multiple companies which stand out different media specialised in written or audio-visual content

Globalisation (in terms of media ownership)- the worldwide integration of media through the cross-cultural exchange of ideas

Cultural imperialism-The practice of promoting the culture values or language of one nation in another

Vertical Integration- a way in which media companies expand by acquiring different businesses in the same chain of production and distribution

Horizontal Integration- a way in which media companies expand by acquiring media companies that work in similar sectors

Mergers-a merger or acquisition in which 2 or more of the undertakings involved carry on a media business

Monopolies- concentrated control of major mass communications within a society

Gatekeepers- the process through which information is filtered for dissemination

Regulation- the process by which a range of specific, often legally binding, tools are applied to media systems and institutions to achieve established policy goals such as pluralism, diversity, competition, and freedom

Deregulation- the process of removing or loosening government restrictions on the ownership of media outlets

Free market- one where voluntary exchange and the laws of supply and demand provide the sole basis for the economic system

Commodification- the transformation of the shape of the relationship, which is initially trafficked into things that are free of the commercial nature of the relationship  

Convergence- the merging of previously distinct media technologies and platforms through digitization and computer networking 

Diversity- diversity of ideas, viewpoints or content options 

Innovation- change in several aspects of the media landscape, from the development of new media platforms, to new business models, to new ways of producing media texts

His book is ‘The Cultural Industries’ and it is about the relationship between media workers and the media industry.

He talks about tracing the relationship between media work, media workers, and media industry

The promise of wealth and fame and the celebration of a range of unlikely popular heroes including various dot.com millionaires.

The most successful creative people are born into someone already in the industry.

There is a stereotype of the creative industry being a fun place to work.

“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.

‘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)

“I think a lot sadly does come down to luck and who you know. Which can be a shame, I don’t think there is a scheme set up which pushes people into just the media industry” shows that it’s difficult to make a proper career about of media and if you don’t know anyone famous at the start you will struggle to promote your work.”