1. CMNS 2301 Economics of the Cultural Industries Learning Objectives Identify three main similarities and three main differences between industrial consumer good and cultural consumer good production Key Q: what is special about the cultural industries? (Hes: pages 17-22) Key Q: within the cultural industries, what are some key differences?

2. CMNS 2302 Fordism and Post Fordism Compared Fordism Mass Production Unionized Labour Standardization Market aggregation Centralization Technology of Production Concentration Post Fordism Flexible Production Casual Labour Individualization/ Niches/Segregation Decentralization Technology of Consumption Coordination: Networks

3. CMNS 2303 Mapping the Historical Trajectory: Four Periods of Cultural Economic Production Hesmondalgh bases his periods on Raymond Williams but introduces a fourth era –Patronage –Market Professional –Corporate Professional –Complex Professional

4. CMNS 2304 Historical Contrasts Before –Creative stage carried out by individuals –Creator/Owner simple dyadic relationship –Large degree of autonomy After –Now carried out by a project team with various roles –Craft/Creator; Owner/Manager now differentiated –High degree of autonomy; BUT control tightens in later stages of cultural production –( source: Hesmondalgh, 54)

5. CMNS 2305 Contrasts Continued Before –Regular wages –Multiple, competitive companies usually in one industry –Internationalisation of narrow elite markets followed trade flows/imperial centre periphery relations –Highly regulated( eg: role of US state in film.. Page 52) After –Royalties –Concentration and oligopoly– firms now in multiple industries( conglomeration) –Successive waves since 19 th century of: Cultural forms Technologies Industries/Texts Capital Intensification( H:63) –Growing business self- regulation

6. CMNS 2306 Why Cultural Commodities are Unlike Others -Nature of the Product -Nature of Labour -Nature of the Production Process -Anatomy of Marginal Cost -Substitutability -Nature of Demand -Nature of Pricing -Type of Consumption Source: Peter S. Grant and Chris Wood, “Curious Economics” in Blockbusters and Trade Wars, 2004, p. 45.