The Cultural Industries

Introduction

David Hesmondhalgh’s The Cultural Industries was first published in 2002 with a fourth edition released in 2019. Exploring the production and circulation of media texts, the book offered a comprehensive overview of the shifting economic and social contexts shaping the creative and cultural industries.

Here are definitions of some key terms from Hesmondhalgh’s analysis with examples to help explain the concepts.

Symbolic Creativity

Symbolic creativity refers to “the manipulation of symbols for the purposes of entertainment, information and… enlightenment”. Television programmes, film productions, and newspapers are obvious examples of traditional media texts that use symbols to share ideas and engage the audience.

Now everyone has the opportunity to tell a story and shape their personal identity on social media. When you upload a TikTok dance or post a selfie on Instagram, you are an active participant in the cultural conversation. Sharing playlists, posting reaction videos and memes, using AI to create podcasts, mashing up footage, and modding video games are all acts of symbolic creativity.

Symbol Creators

Symbol creators are the workers who produce media content, such as journalists, filmmakers, advertisers, influencers, and musicians. They use symbols to shape public opinion and values, construct narratives, influence trends, and help audiences make sense of the world.

Hesmondhalgh noted the difference between “the small number of highly-rewarded superstars” compared to the “majority of people attempting to make a living out of cultural production”. However, many symbol makers are willing to accept “poor working conditions” because they want to be “involved in creative projects and the glamour surrounding these worlds”.

It is also worth noting symbol creators are influenced by the relations of production. For example, the messages encoded by popular streamers are shaped by their need for sponsors and the owners of newspapers pay their journalists to reinforce a set of values and ideologies.

Commodification

The concept of commodification refers to the process of “transforming objects and ideas into commodities” which can be bought, sold and exchanged. Hesmondhalgh believed the commodification of culture was a “long-term and ambivalent process” with “different stages and taking multiple forms”.

Adapting an example from John Frow’s (1997) Time and Commodity Culture, Hesmondhalgh identified three stages of commodification:

• The commodification of the material object (the book) – as early as the 15th century.
• The commodification of the information contained within the material object as ‘the work’ in copyright law – from the 18th century onward.
• The commodification of access to printed text information via electronic databases and so on in – in the late 20th century.

There is no doubt culture is increasingly packaged as a product to be sold to consumers. Hesmondhalgh argued we should “resist the more negative aspects of commodification”, such as the “unrecognised and under-rewarded paid labour” in the media industry. The huge amount of cultural labour that goes into making a film is often ignored because consumers are more focused on the glamorous stars of Hollywood. The gig economy is another area of concern because many symbol creators are self-employed and struggle with the cost of living.

Globalisation

In terms of economics, globalisation refers to the incredible movement of goods and services around the world. Cultural industries are also dependent on cross-border production and distribution of media texts. This internationalisation is an effective way for companies to reach new markets and audiences.

Vertical Integration

Vertical integration refers to a single company which owns most of the chain of production.

Consider the production and distribution of Echoes of Wisdom (2024). One company controlled every part of the game’s journey from creation to consumer. Nintendo owns the Zelda intellectual property and directly oversees the creative direction of the franchise. The game was developed by their largest division, Nintendo EPD, published by Nintendo, and distributed digitally on their hardware, the Nintendo Switch console. Even the marketing and merchandising was handled by the company.

Another good example of the vertical integration model is The Dail Mail. The symbol creators working for the company (DMG Media) produce the original news, opinion columns, lifestyle supplements, and entertainment features. In terms of physical copies, the newspaper is published in-house by their subsidiary and sent to retailers across the UK. It is also published on their website and mobile apps, ensuring the company maintains direct control over all distribution channels.

DMG Media sells advertising space directly to clients. This level of control means they can collect valuable user data and monetise content more effectively across the different platforms by setting their own editorial priorities.

Horizontal Integration

Horizontal integration refers to a company acquiring a competitor in the same sector. This is a good way for the owners to expand their market share, reduce competition, gain creative talent, and diversify content.

An obvious example would be Disney’s purchase of Pixar for $7.4 billion. Instead of competing against another major animation studio, Disney bought the company and their technology to deliver successful co-productions, including Up (2009) and Inside Out (2015).

Marvel Studios was another company involved in symbolic creativity with their own characters and fanbase. They had already started their cinematic universe with the release of Iron Man and The Incredible Hulk in 2008 before they were acquired by Disney for around $4 billion in 2009. Disney went on to buy Lucasfilm in 2012, taking full ownership of the Star Wars and Indiana Jones franchises.

These acquisitions helped Disney substantially expand its portfolio of intellectual property and increase market dominance in the film and entertainment industry.

Vertical integration is an important factor in this sort of control. If a production company also owns the distribution and retail channels, they can withhold the release of product or make the text available on one platform and create a sense of exclusivity.

Formatting

The development and production of media texts is incredibly risky, so companies will format cultural products to improve the chances of success. Hesmondhalgh identified three key strategies:

• genre;
• star power; and
• serialisation.

Echoes of Wisdom is an action-adventure game – a very popular hybrid genre that mixes physical action and puzzles to engage the audience. The game features the incredible star power of Princess Zelda as the main playable character and is one of the most well-known series on Nintendo’s platforms. It’s no surprise the game shifted over 3 million copies worldwide.

Will Disney ever stop expanding the Marvel cinematic universe or bring the Star Wars saga to a conclusion? Remember, companies involved in the cultural industries are driven by profit and symbolic creativity is often determined by financial imperatives. That’s showbusiness.

You can read our summary of formatting and Hollywood cinema for more detail about the concept.