Management and the Cultural Industries - Essay Example

?To what extent can the content of cultural ‘texts’ be explained by political-economic factors? Illustrate your answer with reference to at least oneexample of a contemporary cultural ‘text’. Customer Inserts His/Her Name Customer Inserts Grade Course Customer Inserts Tutor’s Name 18/2/2011 INTRODUCTION Culture may be defined as the way things are in a certain society. The culture of a society is an evolving process, constantly changing as there are advances in technology, economy and other environmental factors. It can also be defined as the norms and realities of a society, it is the way people talk or perceive, it is human conduct and a mixture of behavioral patterns, values and systems. Thus, culture is a myriad of different aspects of society including formalized and unofficial systems. (Davey) As culture is evolving constantly by the developments around the society, industries such as the media which include print, radio, television, music, entertainment among others represent the culture of a society and also influence it to a certain extent. These industries, that are known as cultural industries produce cultural texts, which are manifestations of the prevailing, culture for example ‘An American Brat’ by Bapsi Sidhwa is a book that represents the culture of Zoroastrians and how it is affected by moving to a Western country and integrating into a different cultural environment. Cultural industries create cultural texts which can be anything from books to music to newspapers and fashion. In America, during the time of flower power, the music and the fashion represented and promoted the culture of that period expressing harmony and bohemianism. However, cultural industries are influenced by other factors beside the prevailing culture itself such as the political scenario and economic conditions, they are driven by profit and often the texts are dependent on revenue and commercialism rather true creative representations of culture. Thus, this report focuses on the extent to which cultural texts are affected by political and economic factors. Culture and the political economy The political economy approach to culture focuses on how the production and distribution systems governing the cultural industries affect culture and cultural texts. The approach focuses on the interaction of political systems, economics, state institutions, social institutions and everyday life. The political and economic factors in a society determine to a great extent which faces of culture are promoted and which are neglected due to the dependence of cultural industries on revenue and profit and the power wielded by the state. (Kellner, 1999) This approach includes the conflict between the communist and capitalist approach. A capitalist economy would be focused on achieving the most with regards to revenue and thus focus on the popularity and profitability of the text whereas the communist economy would be more sensitive to political power and be restricted by it. However, even in a democratic capitalist setting the state would be involved in media matter regarding products such as cigarettes advertising, thus influencing the content of cultural texts. (Kellner, 1999) THE US AND EUROPEAN APPROACH The two main political economy approaches to cultural texts are the US and the European. The US model is the Schiller-McChesney tradition which focuses on the use of power and information media. The European approach focuses on cultural industries and the ‘commodifying of culture’. It addresses the information and entertainment side and focuses on the creation, production and delivery of cultural texts as well the audience responses. It inserts the creators of text; authors, musicians, performers and others in the context of the market. (Cultural Approaches to Economy and the Media, 2010) CULTURAL TEXTS AND GOVERNMENT CONTROL The political economy approach identifies how cultural texts are affected by government control. However, in a free market economy cultural texts generated through cultural industries are free from government interference and control. Cultural expression in capitalist economies is free and autonomous however it is still regulated to a certain extent as with regards to pornography and smoking. Whereas, in countries without democracy, cultural expression may be restricted for example in Pakistan in the 1980’s in the time of martial law, the media was restricted in various forms from dressing to advertisement to content. Thus the content of cultural texts is affected by the level of government control and the market system prevailing in society. In the USA and many other democratic countries, the media is free to publish content that may be deemed offensive in many circles, thus the cultural texts are untamed and there is no limit on content. This includes pornography as a cultural text, which the government may limit the distribution of but is available freely due to the political and economic freedoms available in the country. (Kellner, 1999) OWNERSHIP PATTERNS AND POWER Ownership patterns and power is a vital factor in this approach and has great control over cultural content. The ownership of cultural industries such as media and fashion and political power entitles these owners to produce and distribute cultural texts according to their interests. This issue caters to local cultures with the political-economic setup in a country as well as cultural imperialism. Starting in the 1960’s and 70’s, cultural imperialism and corporate control of media became predominant issues. Many political economists of media including Noam Chomsky, Edward Herman, Robert McChesney and Dan Schiller focused on these issues. There was great criticism on the rampant promotion of American culture and consumerism through the media corporation that were generally owned by American corporations. Corporations such as Time Warner are huge companies with global reach and their corporate point of view influences the media content that they promote globally. There has been a promotion of Americanization and consumerism through these global media corporations. This shows that the ownership of media affects the content of cultural texts. From a political economic aspect the concentration of media companies into a few hands increases corporate control and increases the production of one sided cultural texts. In the example, of Time Warner, the company owns news channels, publications, computer services, professional sports and music; such integration leads to homogenizations of content and control over the promotion of cultural content. (Rhonda Hammer, 2009) In the local context, cultural works are affected by ownership patterns and power structures in the society. In the case of Britain, The Arts Council of Britain decided on texts that should be funded or not based on their level of commercialization, which shows two sides of the issue. One, that commercialization or mass acceptance of a cultural text may diminish its artistic value in the eyes of the elite. Power structures can influence what cultural texts get promoted or not (McQuail, 2005) (O’Connor, 2010). Media corporations such as Fox Corporation provide news and information based on their agenda’s for example they promote Republicans and promote bias at the expense of Democrats. As in many countries the power is concentrated in a few multinational corporations they can influence culture throughout the world from fashion to music to consumerism as can be seen by the popularity of the Apple Ipads, Iphones and Mac. Thus the content of cultural texts is greatly affected by the pattern of ownership and power structures in a society. The owners of cultural industries such as media can control what gets promoted and what content is produced. Culture is formed within the structures of power and often replicates those structures in the texts. For example, the power of corporations, the rat race and the corruptions of the legal system is often depicted in novels by John Grisham and in television programs such as Boston Legal, Law and order and others. ADVERTISING AND ECONOMICS Cultural texts are greatly influenced by economics. The economic structure of a society affects the popularity of specific cultural texts. In the European view the cultural industries are a part of the market and thus are governed by the laws of the market. Cultural texts such as books and art are sold as commodities and thus they fit into the demand and supply framework and depend on the society’s willingness and ability to purchase. Thus, television shows will be aired according to the advertising and viewership they command so that the station can make profits and texts that may be more relevant and independent may not be promoted. Even public performances such as theatre, concerts and cinema are sold to the masses and thus have become cultural commodities dependant on demand and supply. News channels focus on propaganda and sensationalism to increase viewership and get advertisers. Thus the culture industry focuses on making profits and the profits in turn determine the content of the cultural texts that are produced. (O’Connor, 2010) Media culture is now purely commercial enterprise with developed code of conduct and genres that define content that is released. Writers and producers receive guidelines of what can be incorporated in shows and aired and what is not acceptable. However, the focus is on viewership and consumers rather than on content. However, there are still texts that break those barriers but there popularity is also dependant on the economic system thus the example of the starving artist. DISTRIBUTION AND CONSUMPTION Technological progress, with the advent of print and telecommunications and more recently the internet has given the masses more control over cultural text than before, their demand and consumption of such texts often defines the production and popularity of cultural texts. As is in the case of television shows and music, popularity and profit define the content of cultural text as can be seen by the popularity of rock, rap and country genres of music. As cultural texts have now been transformed into cultural commodities produced by cultural industries, they are distributed and consumed. Cultural texts such as newspapers, magazines, books, music and art are now widely distributed through the global media and bought by the masses. This affects cultural texts as now they are more dependent on their marketability. Before technology enabled this distribution of cultural texts they were less influenced by political economic factors but the increasing level of education and the adoption of technology have increased the importance of the commercial viability of cultural texts causing them to be dependent on the acceptability and popularity. (O’Connor, 2010) CULTURAL STUDIES Vs POLITICAL ECONOMY Cultural studies approach focuses on the analysis and interpretation of cultural texts and their affect on the audiences. It also takes into account economic factors but largely focuses on the ideologies of class, gender, ethnicity in texts. It focuses on ordinary culture and subjectivity and identity. It considers social power and transformation. It also asserts that content owners and advertisers are limited by the structures they operate within and cannot do as they wish. (Mainsah, 2009) However, the content of cultural texts and their analysis is not entirely dependent on one view or the other and interplay of various factors determine the production and content of cultural texts. The circuit of culture by Du Gay et al. (1997) presents a framework that focuses on five factors necessary to study a cultural text: regulation , consumption, production, identity and representation. Thus all these factors combined affect the content of cultural texts and cannot be solely explained by poltical economic theories or cultural studies. CONCLUSION Cultural texts represent cultural expression such as books, stories, music, television, news, theater and so on. They are important representations of culture and are affected greatly by society and its norms. However, these cultural texts are not just based on culture but are greatly affected by political economic factors as well. The political economy encompasses the state and its power as well as the economic systems of a society. The power that economic and political institutions hold dictates what form and content of cultural expression will gain promotion and publicity and what will be ignored. This has resulted in cultural texts conforming to political economic norms rather than representing true cultural reality at times. This can be seen through the examples of the biasness of news corporations and the homogeneity of content. Although there have been cultural texts that have broken the barrier but they need to attract viewership and consumers in order to survive, as currently cultural industries are profit motivated, focused on commercialization rather than on creativity. However, on occasion cultural commodities do break the mould and truly represent culture rather than political economic motivation such as Modern Family an American sitcom which represents the changing family dynamic of the United States by incorporating divorce, homosexuality, and multi ethnic backgrounds into the show (Wikipedia). Although political economic factors affect cultural content greatly, they are not the sole determinants of cultural content. Bibliography C. Lee Harrington, D. D. (n.d.). Constructing the Popular: Cultural Production and Consumption. Retrieved 2 18, 2011, from Blackwell publishing: http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/content/BPL_Images/Content_store/Sample_chapter/9780631217091/Harrington_Popular%20Culture_Chapter%20001.pdf Cultural Approaches to Economy and the Media. (2010, 11 30). Retrieved 2 18, 2011, from http://www.theglaringfacts.com/meda-economy/ Davey, A. K. (n.d.). The Meaning of Culture. Retrieved 2 18, 2011, from Across Cultures: http://acrosscultures.info/meaning-of-culture.html Kellner, D. (1999). The Frankfurt School and British Cultural Studies: The Missed Articulation. Retrieved 2 18, 2011, from http://www.uta.edu/huma/illuminations/kell16.htm Mainsah, H. (2009, 9 3). Political Economy and Cultural Studies: Approaches to Media and Globalization. Retrieved 2 18, 2011, from http://www.uio.no/studier/emner/hf/imk/MEVIT4220/h09/undervisningsmateriale/political%20economy%20vs%20cultural%20studies%20lecture.pdf McQuail, D. (2005). McQuail's Mass Communication Theory. Sage Publications. Negus, D. P. (1997). Doing Cultural Studies: The Story of the Sony Walkman. Sage Publications Ltd . O’Connor, J. (2010). The cultural and creative industries: a literature review. Creativity, Culture and Education Series. Owen, B. (2010). Explaining culture: Cultural materialism and culture as text. Retrieved 2 18, 2011, from http://bruceowen.com/introcultural/a203-10s-08-CulturalMaterialismAndText.pdf Rhonda Hammer, D. K. (2009). Media/Cultural Studies: Critical Approaches . Peter Lang Publishing. Totale, J. (2003, 5 17). Political Economy approach to Media Studies and the Recording Industry. Retrieved 2 18, 2011, from http://everything2.com/title/Political+Economy+approach+to+Media+Studies+and+the+Recording+Industry Wikipedia. (n.d.). Modern Family. Retrieved 2 18, 2011, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modern_Family Read More