In discussing the quote above by Hesmondhalgh I will look at the way in which Hollywood and the BBC, as cultural industries still have features when they first established . Fordism and post-Fordism are the approaches I will be applying to the change in cultural production of Hollywood and the BBC.
Culture is a term that needs to be understood in order to further the discussion of cultural industries. There has been much debate over the definition of culture as it is so broad and complex. The most common understanding of culture is by Raymond Williams who says that culture is a "way of life", Hesmondadhalgh however questions this theory by saying if we assume that culture is a "way of life" than "it is possible to argue that all industries are cultural industries in that they are involved in the production and consumption of culture. For by this definition, the clothes we wear, the furniture in our houses and work places, the cars, buses and trains we use for transport, the food and drink we guzzle are all part of our culture." (Hesondhalgh:2002).
He goes onto say that cultural industries are more restricted than the definition given by Williams, he summarises the distinctive features of the cultural industries into two categories .One is "problems", which consist of: risky business, high production costs and low reproduction costs and semi-public goods. The other is "responses", which consists of : concentration, integration and co-opting publicity, artificial scarcity, formatting and loose control of symbol creators; tight control of distribution and marketing.pg 17.
Philosophers, Theodor and Horheimer whom are associated with Frankfurt school first developed the term "cultural industry", referring to the collective operations of the media. Cultural industry/industries are involved in "the production of social change" (Hesondhalgh:2002) this includes television, radio, cinema, newspapers, magazines and book publishing, music recording, publishing industries, advertising and the performing arts.
