Cultural Industries Theory - A1

Cultural Industries Theory was proposed by David Hesmondhalgh, which states that cultural industries companies try to minimize risks and maximize profits and audiences through vertical and horizontal integration. 

Risk is particularly high in the cultural industries because of the difficulty in predicting success, high production costs, low reproduction costs and the fact that media products are ‘public goods’ – they are not destroyed on consumption but can be further reproduced.

Key points:

• Vertical integration is when a company acquires another company operating in the production process of the same industry, takes control over one or more stages in the production or distribution of a product.
• Horizontal integration is when one company takes over another that operates at the same level in an industry or produce similar products => more products, resources and profit
• Companies format their cultural products through the use of popular stars, genres/formats and serials - create political debates as popular things are mostly stereotypes and Westernised.
• Large conglomerates now operate across a number of different cultural industries, media platforms and technologies - media output diversification
• Media convergence simply refers to the merging of different types of mass media such as Traditional Media, Print Media, Broadcast Media, New Media and the Internet as well as portable and highly interactive technologies through digital media platforms.
• Companies control the release schedule of their products to maximize profit. For example, they would release a movie at the same time all over the world => avoid being privated and losing profit so people couldn't get hold of them for free online. They may also hold up products to make them seem rare and exclusive, then later release them across all media for people who couldn't get hold of them initially to rush out and purchase the products.
• The potential of the internet has been contained to some extent by its partial cooperation into a large and profit-oriented set of cultural industries. 
• Cultural industries companies have detailed marketing campaigns and techniques such as promoting their products through posters, social media platforms, online websites, guerilla marketing, etc. 

How have the producers of Stranger Things used genre conventions to make a more innovative product? 

 

Large conglomerates often rely on repetition through the use of stars, genres, franchises, repeatable narratives in order to minimize risk and maximize profit. Therefore, media products use star names and conform to genre conventions to produce safe products which can be sold to an audience successfully as they depend on big hits in the past and make some changes to them to be more innovative. 

Stranger Things is a television series that reused common tropes and genre conventions from other successful films. The producers created it as a homage to the 1980s, including many repeated scenes and ideas from 80s films such as The Extra-Terrestrial, The Shining and Stand by Me. The series is considered a pastiche, an artistic work in a style that imitates that of another work, artist, or period. For example, there are many links between Stranger Things and E.T. such as comparing eleven to the alien through the use of similar shots and comparison of storylines. By using intertextual references and cynical capitalize on nostalgia effectively, the producers can create a much more innovative and unique product despite doing the same thing as many do. In this day and age, people usually communicate and understand one another through pop culture, which includes cultural products that are dominant and famous during a time period consumed by the majority of a society's population. For instance, Stranger Things uses 80s pop culture metaphors to communicate with the audience and give them a communal language as well as a sense of familiarity. The intertextual references also help to frame how the viewers understand the characters.  

To make the series stand out and different from its references and inspirations, the producers had to embrace and understand the genre conventions and franchises, but then twist them in new ways. Stranger Things takes the most familiar and well-known elements of 80s films and character archetypes that audiences can easily find in other movies of the same genre, however, making changes, elaborating on arguments and inviting comparisons can make the series seem original. Even though the series follows the movie The Extra-Terrestrial closely, it makes swerve away from what the original did and overthrows the precursor. The directors did similar things based on 80s films but even better them, to the point that the consumers think the original work was influenced by Stranger Things. It manages to become one of the most popular science fictions shows and a part of the pop culture itself, even if the viewers have not watched the films that were referenced in the series. This will help the producers gain profit and avoid risks to their business as the production costs will be lower and it will be much easier to predict its success. 

To conclude, media companies maximize profit and minimize risk by creating products that are safe.  They use star names, common genre conventions and intertextuality, which will guarantee the product will be successful, as similar products have been in the past, otherwise they could lose a lot of money. However, they must add their own spin on the products in order to appear original.