Two of Hesmondhalgh’s key ideas are:
Hesmondhalgh argues that major cultural organisations create products for different industries in order to maximise chances of commercial success. In relation to online products, he argues that major IT companies now compete with the more traditional media conglomerates within the cultural sector: ‘Microsoft, Google, Apple and Amazon are now as significant as News Corporation, Time Warner and Sony for understanding cultural production and consumption.’
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Cultural-Industries-David-Hesmondhalgh/dp/1446209261#reader_1446209261 Page 2
In terms of web-based production, we can clearly see that online media has been colonised to a large extent by a limited number of providers who have affected a creeping commercialisation of the web.
Curran and Seaton, however, offer an alternative view of online media, arguing that contemporary media ownership focusses production in the hands of the few and not the many. In terms of web based production, we can clearly see that online media has been colonised to a large extent by a limited number of providers who, interestingly, have affected a creeping commercialisation of the web.
Outline Hesmondhalgh’s key ideas relating to the way in which the internet has moved from a potentially radical force to a profit-driven, commercial industry.
The domination of online media by a limited number of tech giants, Google/YouTube/Facebook has arguably hijacked the web’s capacity for audience activism, and, in the process, has arguably asserted a more passive viewing experience. YouTube might have started out as a peer to peer service that encouraged audience activity, but the monetising of upload content has led to the need for YouTube to ensure that uploads are appropriate to the brands advertised. YouTube’s so called ‘adpocalypse’, the demonetising of controversial content using algorithms, was driven by the need to retain major brands as advertisers. The 'adpocalypse' has led, arguably, to widespread self-censorship by vloggers who are keen to keep their uploads public. Interestingly, YouTube’s content is now dominated by large scale media producers like Alfie and Zoella - a move that undermines, to some extent, its original purpose as a peer to peer file sharing platform that celebrated everyday user generated content.
The domination of online media by a limited number of tech giants, Google/YouTube/Facebook has hijacked the web’s capacity for audience activism, and, in the process, has arguably asserted a more passive viewing experience. YouTube might have started out as a peer to peer service that encouraged audience activity, but the monetising of upload content has led to the need for YouTube to ensure that uploads are appropriate to the brands advertised. YouTube’s so called ‘adpocalypse’, the demonetising of controversial content using algorithms, was driven by the need to retain major brands as advertisers. The adpocalypse has led, arguably, to widespread self-censorship by vloggers who are keen to keep their uploads public. Interestingly, YouTube’s content is now dominated by large scale media producers like Alfie and Zoella - a move that undermines, to some extent, its original purpose as a peer to peer file sharing platform that celebrated everyday user generated content.
Give detailed examples of how the online set products are profit-orientated.
While the online magazines, Attitude and DesiMag, are produced by independent publishers, they must also exercise editorial constraint if they are to attract essential advertising revenue - with both products using advertorial/sponsored content in an attempt to engage audiences with brand partners. The aim of both titles is to sell audiences to potential advertisers. As such, enabling audience activism is subsumed by a more traditional celebrity orientated focus that helps to position the products advertised using idealism and escapism. Alfie and Zoella, too, use their online channels to push merchandise and to give space for product placement. The Zalfie partnership might attract audience engagement through commentary, yet most audience interactions offer nothing more substantial than fawning fan excitement that corroborates the ideal lifestyles used by Zalfie to set dress those product placements. Moreover, like YouTube, the popularity of the Zalfie partnership has repositioned their audiences as passive spectators - where once Zalfie embodied the zeitgeist of a user generated content culture they now address a captive audience with products that are, arguably, frameworks for wider commercial activities.