An undisputed classic, the Fourth Edition of this bestselling media studies text offers an unparalleled analysis of the cultural industries. Bringing together a huge range of research, theory and key concepts, David Hesmondhalgh provides an accessible yet critical exploration of cultural production and consumption in the global media landscape. This new edition: Analyses the influence of IT and tech companies like Google, Apple, Amazon and Facebook on the cultural industries. Discusses the impact of digital technologies on industries such as music, TV, newspapers, books and digital games. Explores the effects of digitalisation on culture, discussing critical issues like participation, power, commercialism, surveillance, and labour. Examines the changing conceptions of audiences, and the increasing influence of market research, audience tracking and advertising. As one of the most read, most studied and most cited books in the field, this Fourth Edition is an essential resource for students and researchers of media and communication studies, the cultural and creative industries, cultural studies and the sociology of the media.

`This is both a smashing textbook and also an impressive contribution to thinking in a range of subjects. This book should influence the way we construct the undergraduate curriculum as well as rethink the polarizaton between political economy and cultural studies′- Frank Webster, City University `A wonderfully clear, insightful and original synthesis of work on the cultural industries, representing the perspectives of the new generation of researchers′ - James Curran, Goldsmiths College, University of London `The Cultural Industries is an indispensable guide to the main forces at work in the production of media today. This lucid, careful, and sophisticated book orders the entire field, for the US as well as Europe, and at one stroke becomes the state of the art, the standard′ - Todd Gitlin, New York University `David Hesmondhalgh offers us a valuable resource and a timely provocation... [A] very well organised and clearly written introduction to this increasingly important area of study. Students and teachers wanting a comprehensive and accessible guide to what we know and where we might be heading will welcome it with open arms... His book deserves to be required reading on every media and cultural studies course′ - Graham Murdock, University of Loughborough ′ The arguments within [this book] provide both a timely overview of current scholarship and offer a unique multidisciplinary approach to the topic in a clear and concise manner′ - TOPIA: Canadian Journal of Cultural Studies What are the ′cultural industries′? What role do they play in contemporary society? How are they changing? The Cultural Industries combines a political economy approach with the best aspects of cultural studies, sociology, communication studies and social theory to provide an overview of the key debates surrounding cultural production. The book: -Considers both the entertainment and the information sectors -Combines analysis of the contemporary scene with a long-range historical perspective -Draws on an range of examples from North America, the United Kingdom, Europe and elsewhere. Hesmondhalgh′s clearly written, thoroughly argued overview of political-economic, organizational, technological and cultural change represents an important intervention in research on cultural production, but at the same time provides students with an accessible, indispensable introduction to the area.

Cutting-edge perspectives on the functioning of cultural industries are offered in this volume, which explores the media, entertainment and artistic sectors. Contributors place these industries in the new economy and suggest ways in which they can contribute to urban and regional economic and social development.

The Cultural Industries places transformation in the cultural industries in long-term political, economic and cultural context. In doing so, Hesmondhalgh offers a distinctive critical approach to cultural production, drawing on political economy perspectives, but also on cultural studies, sociology and social theory.

The creation of the Frankfurt School of critical theory in the 1920s saw the birth of some of the most exciting and challenging writings of the twentieth century. It is out of this background that the great critic Theodor Adorno emerged. His finest essays are collected here, offering the reader unparalleled insights into Adorno's thoughts on culture. He argued that the culture industry commodified and standardized all art. In turn this suffocated individuality and destroyed critical thinking. At the time, Adorno was accused of everything from overreaction to deranged hysteria by his many detractors. In today's world, where even the least cynical of consumers is aware of the influence of the media, Adorno's work takes on a more immediate significance. The Culture Industry is an unrivalled indictment of the banality of mass culture.

Studies of race and media are dominated by textual approaches that explore the politics of representation. But there is little understanding of how and why representations of race in the media take the shape that they do. How, one might ask, is race created by cultural industries? In this important new book, Anamik Saha encourages readers to focus on the production of representations of racial and ethnic minorities in film, television, music and the arts. His interdisciplinary approach combines critical media studies and media industries research with postcolonial studies and critical race perspectives to reveal how political economic forces and legacies of empire shape industrial cultural production and, in turn, media discourses around race. Race and the Cultural Industries is required reading for students and scholars of media and cultural studies, as well as anyone interested in why historical representations of 'the Other' persist in the media and how they are to be challenged.

"To explain the logic of these arrangements, the author draws on the analytical resources of industrial economics and the theory of contracts. He addresses the winner-take-all character of many creative activities that brings wealth and renown to some artists while dooming others to frustration; why the "option" form of contract is so prevalent; and why even savvy producers get sucked into making "ten-ton turkeys," such as Heaven's Gate."--BOOK JACKET.