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Media Industries

3 dot points across 3 inquiry questions. Click any dot point for a focused answer with worked past exam questions where available.

How do you apply Hesmondhalgh's argument that cultural industries minimise risk and maximise audiences through integration and formatting to analyse media industries?

Cultural industries (David Hesmondhalgh): culture and industry are in tension; to manage the high risk of cultural production, companies use vertical and horizontal integration, and they standardise and format products through stars, genres and serials, while the largest conglomerates operate across many cultural industries.
How to apply David Hesmondhalgh's cultural industries theory in WJEC A-Level Media Studies. Covers the tension between culture and industry, minimising risk and maximising audiences, vertical and horizontal integration, standardisation through stars, genres and serials, conglomeration, and how to use the theory on set products in the exam.
13 min answer →

How do you apply Curran and Seaton's argument that media power is concentrated in a few profit-driven companies, which narrows variety and quality, to analyse media industries?

Power and media industries (James Curran and Jean Seaton): the media are controlled by a small number of large, profit-driven companies; concentration of ownership tends to reduce variety, creativity and quality, and more diverse, democratic patterns of ownership would produce more adventurous media.
How to apply Curran and Seaton's theory of power and media industries in WJEC A-Level Media Studies. Covers concentration of ownership, the profit and power motive, the effect on variety and quality, the case for diverse and democratic ownership, and how to use the theory on set products and contexts in the exam.
13 min answer →

How do you apply Livingstone and Lunt's argument about the tension between protecting citizens and serving consumers, and the strain digital convergence puts on regulation, to analyse media industries?

Regulation (Sonia Livingstone and Peter Lunt): there is a tension in regulation between the need to protect the interests of citizens and the need to serve the interests of consumers; the rise of global, convergent and digital media puts traditional, nationally based regulation under strain.
How to apply Livingstone and Lunt's theory of media regulation in WJEC A-Level Media Studies. Covers what regulation is, the tension between protecting citizens and serving consumers, the strain global and convergent digital media put on national regulation, and how to use the theory on set products and industry contexts in the exam.
13 min answer →