Reading Response Question 3

As stated earlier in the article, there is no way for an institution to control the cultural impact on their work; they cannot generalize it to a strictly economic or political impact on the media industry. The quote on page 248 discusses how cultural studies play a role in shaping the media industries, and how this cultural impact is missed when studying media industries with the narrow eye of a political-economist. Political-economists understand the various economic and political factors that affect the media industries, but seem to marginalize the cultural impact. This quote tells us that cultural studies do have an impact on media industries and they should not be dismissed. The reason for this is simple, the industries are made up of people and they are producing media for people. People inherently make up culture, and in order to understand media industries, we must understand the cultural ties and influences that make up these industries. One cannot disregard the culture because it, as well as economic and political factors, weigh heavily on the decisions made by industries and the media they produce. This media helps shape out society and influence everything we do. Thus, the culture of the media industries directly helps create the culture of our society.

I tend to agree with their belief that culture plays a large role in the media industries. Obviously there are going to economic factors, not many people go to work each day without the incentive of making some money, but these are not the only factors involved. Political factors are also quite obvious; the government plays a large role in regulating and controlling the industry among other things. Though these two factors are quite important, the cultural influence on media industries and what they produce cannot be overlooked, and if it is tossed aside as insignificant, the study of these industries will be slightly skewed and missing some useful insight.