Management and the Cultural Industries Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Management and the Cultural Industries - Essay Example 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 respo nses. 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 industri