The cultural industry is the set of companies and institutions whose main economic activity is the culture production, for profit. Although a priori it can be considered that the cultural industry has nothing different from all other industries dedicated to producing goods or services, it is a special case of industry, because the good to be marketed does not correspond to the categories of most of the enconimics goods.
The goods that are distributed in this industry have symbolic contents, and are conceived on the basis of creative work, and are intended for their consumer markets with a function of ideological and social reproduction.
The coinage of this idea of cultural industry was given by the theorists of the Frankfurt school, at the time when they observed great changes in the way of reproduction and distribution of culture. The expansion of a cultural market, and the formation of a new idea that is mass culture. This is the form of culture that manages to manufacture on a large scale certain products that are liked by large numbers of people, and that therefore they are consumed in massive form.
This brings with it the implication that profit multiplies, and therefore it is offered as a usually attractive alternative to the capital: In the same sense, the product starts to use tools such as the marketing wave advertising.
The latter brings with it an elementary issue, which is the commodification of culture and the transfer of maximizing tools to it. There is a fusion between culture and entertainment, and a necessary transformation of cultural goods into products that, first of all, must be simple and adaptable to mass consumption.
This is enhanced much more to the extent that As a result of the globalization process, it is common for certain cultural products to be even exported all over the world, and the technologies imply a reinforcement in this sense. It should not be concluded, however, that there is an opposition between the condition of the mass market and the quality of the cultural industry: however, sometimes it is necessary to go a step further and take some licenses that are not usual in the cultural industry. in order to fully appreciate certain products.
Anyway, undoubtedly the great value of the growth of the culture industry is the enormous growth in the possibilities of access to cultural content, for the great majority. Compared to the first half of the 20th century, an inhabitant of any country in the world accesses a much greater quantity of cultural products with a much simpler way of access, despite the fact that the products are standardized in certain ways, and despite the fact that usually the origins of these products are the most developed countries.
In this way, the cultural industry massifies the delivery of products that previously seemed forbidden to small minoritiesBut it is no less true to affirm that at the moment this potential is not exploited as a function of creativity and free development but for the expansion of profit margins.
The cultural industry, then, includes the set of integrated services so that the cultural content is of quality, and standardized for its massive distribution. The following list includes some examples from those industries:
- Film production.
- Multimedia content.
- Designers, directors and theater technicians.
- Choreographers.
- Book editor.
- Representative of musicians.
- TV service providers: cameras, lights, sounds, editing.
- Book distributor.
- Programmers of festivals, exhibitions or theater or cinema networks.
- Editor of electronic publications.
- Magazine illustrator.
- Label.
- Playful videogame designer.
- Production of television series.
- Cultural magazines.
- Video game programming.
- Video game testing.
- Book editorial.
- Design and Advertising.
- Music producer.
