David Hesmondhalgh
I did my PhD in the 1990s at Goldsmiths, University of London, on independent record companies and their links with punk, post-punk and rave culture, supervised by Georgina Born. My first full-time teaching and research job was also at Goldsmiths. I worked in the Sociology department at the Open University from 1999 to 2007 where I chaired the production of a major course, Understanding Media, which involved five books and various other distance-learning materials. I've been at Leeds since 2007, and from June 2010 to December 2013 was Head of the Institute of Communications Studies - this was the name of the School of Media and Communication prior to August 2014.Much of my research has been about music. My book, Why Music Matters (published in September 2013), was about the ways in which music might enhance people's lives, individually and collectively, and what often stops it from doing so. It's been translated into Spanish and Russian.I'm also known for my research on media industries and media production. My book The Cultural Industries (Sage) is an analysis of changes and continuities in television, film, music, publishing and other industries since the 1980s, and of the rise of the tech platform corporations that have played an increasingly important role. The fourth edition, published in December 2018, is a thoroughly revised, updated and expanded version of the third, published in 2012. It's now unrecognisable from the first edition of 2002, and has grown to over 500 pages. It's been translated into various languages, including Chinese, Russian and Italian.Another widely cited book is Creative Labour: Media Work in Three Cultural Industries, (co-written with Sarah Baker, 2010) which examined work in the contemporary media and cultural industries. The book was based on research funded by the UK Arts and Humanities Research Council from 2006 to 2009. It’s been translated into Korean. Culture, Economy and Politics: The Case of New Labour (Palgrave, 2015, co-written with Kate Oakley, David Lee and Melissa Nisbett) was a critical study of the cultural policies of the British 'New Labour' government of 1997 to 2010. It covered arts and 'creative industries' policies, heritage, regional cultural development, and various other issues, and was based on research funded by the UK Arts and Humanities Research Council from 2012 to 2014. I've also edited various books and a special issue of Popular Communication on 'Race, ethnicity and cultural production', co-edited with Anamik Saha.I’ve been awarded paid Fellowships/Visiting Scholar positions at the Annenberg School for Communication, University of Pennsylvania (2016), Microsoft Research New England (2019) and Aarhus University (2021). I was elected a Fellow of the International Communications Association in 2017, and a Fellow of the British Academy in 2021.
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Books by David Hesmondhalgh
Purely descriptive accounts date fast, so the emphasis has been on identifying the central issues and problems arising from media change, and on evaluating its wider consequences. What is judged to be the staple elements of the field has evolved over time, as well as becoming more international in orientation. Yet the overriding aim of the book - to be useful to students - has remained constant. This text is an essential resource for all media, communication and film studies students who want to broaden their knowledge and understanding of how the media operates and affects society across the globe.
Bringing together a huge range of research, theory and key concepts, David Hesmondhalgh provides an accessible yet critical exploration of cultural production and consumption in the global media landscape. This new edition:
Analyses the influence of IT and tech companies like Google, Apple, Amazon and Facebook on the cultural industries.
Discusses the impact of digital technologies on industries such as music, TV, newspapers, books and digital games.
Explores the effects of digitalisation on culture, discussing critical issues like participation, power, commercialism, surveillance, and labour.
Examines the changing conceptions of audiences, and the increasing influence of market research, audience tracking and advertising.
As one of the most read, most studied and most cited books in the field, this Fourth Edition is an essential resource for students and researchers of media and communication studies, the cultural and creative industries, cultural studies and the sociology of the media.
The thesis is an investigation of the following question: to what extent have the independent record companies associated with the two most important 'movements' in British popular music culture during the last twenty years (punldpost-punk and dance music culture) succeeded in democratising the British music business?
Part One introduces the key terms in the question. It provides a definition of democratisation with regard to media production, and outlines some of the factors which might constrain producers who wish to bring about such democratisation in the contemporary cultural industries. It examines the particular, but recently diminished, importance attached to independent cultural production as a means of democratisation in
studies of 'post-Fordism', and in popular music history.
Part Two focuses on punk and post-punk as long-term institutional and aesthetic challenges to the music industry. The emphasis on access and decentralisation in punk politics is analysed, along with its ambivalence towards mass culture. Contrasting case studies are provided of firms which sought to set up alternative networks of distribution,
and those who came to work more closely with major corporations. Their respective aims and achievements are assessed.
Part Three analyses the role of small dance music labels in the British music industry since the late 1980s 'acid house' explosion. The cultural politics of dance music are examined, stressing the relatively limited attention paid to issues of production. A general survey of the British dance music industry in the late 1980s and early 1990s is provided,
which pays special attention to the repercussions of partnerships between independents and corporations. There follows an analysis of how a particular dance music label acts as a forum for debates about issues such as digital sampling, multiculturalism and anti-racism,
and black identity.
Part Four provides a comparison of the democratising achievements of the two movements, and draws out some of the implications of the thesis for work in media studies, cultural studies and the sociology of youth subcultures.
Articles by David Hesmondhalgh
• Streaming encourages ‘functional’ rather than meaningful, aesthetic musical experience
• Streaming encourages bland, unchallenging music
• Streaming makes musical experience passive and distracted, and music recedes into the background (here the article also discusses the limitations of the widely-used concepts of ‘ubiquitous music’ and ‘ubiquitous listening’)
• Streaming makes music shorter, and musical experience more fragmented
• Streaming discourages and/or limits musical discovery and adventurousness
The article addresses each of these themes in turn, examining the degree to which criticisms of streaming’s effects on musical experience along these lines might be considered valid, and the degree to which they might genuinely enhance understanding of contemporary musical experience. It also considers these themes in relation to older forms of critique, particularly those that developed in the twentieth century in response to the industrialisation of music, and argues that many recent criticisms problematically reproduce older anxieties and assumptions.
Keywords: capitalism and media, moral economy, capabilities, well-being, flourishing, value of culture, ethical turn, Nussbaum
Purely descriptive accounts date fast, so the emphasis has been on identifying the central issues and problems arising from media change, and on evaluating its wider consequences. What is judged to be the staple elements of the field has evolved over time, as well as becoming more international in orientation. Yet the overriding aim of the book - to be useful to students - has remained constant. This text is an essential resource for all media, communication and film studies students who want to broaden their knowledge and understanding of how the media operates and affects society across the globe.
Bringing together a huge range of research, theory and key concepts, David Hesmondhalgh provides an accessible yet critical exploration of cultural production and consumption in the global media landscape. This new edition:
Analyses the influence of IT and tech companies like Google, Apple, Amazon and Facebook on the cultural industries.
Discusses the impact of digital technologies on industries such as music, TV, newspapers, books and digital games.
Explores the effects of digitalisation on culture, discussing critical issues like participation, power, commercialism, surveillance, and labour.
Examines the changing conceptions of audiences, and the increasing influence of market research, audience tracking and advertising.
As one of the most read, most studied and most cited books in the field, this Fourth Edition is an essential resource for students and researchers of media and communication studies, the cultural and creative industries, cultural studies and the sociology of the media.
The thesis is an investigation of the following question: to what extent have the independent record companies associated with the two most important 'movements' in British popular music culture during the last twenty years (punldpost-punk and dance music culture) succeeded in democratising the British music business?
Part One introduces the key terms in the question. It provides a definition of democratisation with regard to media production, and outlines some of the factors which might constrain producers who wish to bring about such democratisation in the contemporary cultural industries. It examines the particular, but recently diminished, importance attached to independent cultural production as a means of democratisation in
studies of 'post-Fordism', and in popular music history.
Part Two focuses on punk and post-punk as long-term institutional and aesthetic challenges to the music industry. The emphasis on access and decentralisation in punk politics is analysed, along with its ambivalence towards mass culture. Contrasting case studies are provided of firms which sought to set up alternative networks of distribution,
and those who came to work more closely with major corporations. Their respective aims and achievements are assessed.
Part Three analyses the role of small dance music labels in the British music industry since the late 1980s 'acid house' explosion. The cultural politics of dance music are examined, stressing the relatively limited attention paid to issues of production. A general survey of the British dance music industry in the late 1980s and early 1990s is provided,
which pays special attention to the repercussions of partnerships between independents and corporations. There follows an analysis of how a particular dance music label acts as a forum for debates about issues such as digital sampling, multiculturalism and anti-racism,
and black identity.
Part Four provides a comparison of the democratising achievements of the two movements, and draws out some of the implications of the thesis for work in media studies, cultural studies and the sociology of youth subcultures.
• Streaming encourages ‘functional’ rather than meaningful, aesthetic musical experience
• Streaming encourages bland, unchallenging music
• Streaming makes musical experience passive and distracted, and music recedes into the background (here the article also discusses the limitations of the widely-used concepts of ‘ubiquitous music’ and ‘ubiquitous listening’)
• Streaming makes music shorter, and musical experience more fragmented
• Streaming discourages and/or limits musical discovery and adventurousness
The article addresses each of these themes in turn, examining the degree to which criticisms of streaming’s effects on musical experience along these lines might be considered valid, and the degree to which they might genuinely enhance understanding of contemporary musical experience. It also considers these themes in relation to older forms of critique, particularly those that developed in the twentieth century in response to the industrialisation of music, and argues that many recent criticisms problematically reproduce older anxieties and assumptions.
Keywords: capitalism and media, moral economy, capabilities, well-being, flourishing, value of culture, ethical turn, Nussbaum