We tend to think of films and television programmes in aesthetic and artistic terms: the ways in which media texts may tell us stories or inform us about the world. However, films, television programmes, and other kinds of popular media are produced, distributed, and marketed using the techniques and strategies of modern industry: show business is just as much about the business as it is the show. This combination of ‘art’ and ‘industry’ has long sparked debate about the status of the ‘Cultural Industries’ and the way that art and commerce intermingle. This module explores the complex way that cultural industries function, examining a series of dynamics that help us understand how media products take the form they do. What role does advertising play in the life and design of film and TV products? How does market research shape the products that are made and the kinds of audience that are catered for? How have technological developments such as the digital and streaming era influenced the way that products of the cultural industries are produced, distributed and consumed? This module will provide an introduction to these and other questions, drawing upon a range of case examples from cultural industries in the US, UK, and East Asia. The module features an industry guest lecture, and a unique assessment in which students develop and pitch their own media franchise.
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