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cunrren 3 Investigating Cultural Producers “Acton Davis INTRODUCTION his chapter isin four parts Each ofthe fs hee parts oes brit ‘overview ofthe more common research appraaches used 1 investigate cultural production. These are beoaly categorised heres plitcal econo ‘textual analyssand sociological /eehnograpic work. The forth par then con” centsateson the thitd ofthese andthe prac considerations involved, Ip both parts the discussion and examples draw an my own experiences of| researching cultural production in the news industry and within the sub- ‘cultures of financial and politcal le network. At the time of writing have interviewed over 250 professionals employed in journalism, public lations, business and ptt, APPROACHES TO RESEARCHING CULTURAL PRODUCTION Political Economy In mei and cultural sties there are several common approsches used for eseuching and documenting cltral production. These might be loosely placed int thre categories. The first of these helongs, although not excl sively inthe domain of media politcal economy: Under this remit cultural prodctionis investigated onthe macro lesl san industry. Hereitisassumed thatthe conditions of production shape cultural content. The researcher therefore atemps to lnk cultural outputs to the economic, ndustial and polit factors that shape the organisations and industries which then rodece culture Anon paris _ “Histol eatring quae don the inden Whats tei relilon Where themain renee (aieriey ei, ‘pons How are the cosn of prodcion been dows an uhh roe fom ecarch nd eropent wo dit ot wa og Imay comping oeansatons teen he market and wate ‘cesar! Suh figure cle. apeptedand ed wnee cea about staf cara indsry ined andthe psc imps carats it then produes Sor example Cartan a7 Ses oko) 4nd Garam gp) hav lke at ow ate sad hes Bea sideration lel avenged on he tra roduc an dae Suton press. Done (os) and Bann 20s) hn dort ‘of concatron and congameratton aro ie clu dane ee Other cltiralprodicon ah Inked oxen mace ne ch + polis, ply and relitin (Peace 198 Hen sd iechoace "uy Caran and Seaton 3903) Lae govening sch ne mateo, sh earl conten, eemsing and incl af tan ara hs co ing on cata utp Inthe sent cull outputs shaped ts onaqenc f poli snd econo condcohe The ee ton and deions of ind! polican reso and sls Sees and averse iter ough once the ccs a mesa on ‘homale eit, proce nd be card pace Inter wor, nksry fue se snl seo ase dslopments in brodcion othe in an fal of ceri mee ocr oa Tene Fort acount ofthe inden (Cavapesun and Ser ray Mary 198) have obser sich tina poducion susan al Aesbleworkingpra which mac om pate Other hecho to fea now nen chloe sme poductonand ences (Dowsing 10: Heap). 1m ah of thes ees elt profiton snes indie The fuss ot on th inal ho proce ele bet on the scree «xtra fons and high eel decorate which canoe stipe misc elie Research uly ates sssoeng o szalsingdcumens rom industry ade ornate. Thee mas bee form of ple ianciel ast indy wrap sal save dacsmens or historia archives The dhallnge oe ees lat an aces tis dit, which in then be ele appegaed rose eee ands. Such dt ten seed odeelops a sc not ort conto tcortl debts on eta etl roduon Many ese asus pode yb ely <2 Sn. Inthe UK pubs elaine doves can be eine og HMSO ie Mas'Statonery Ofte), Hasta eral pune pola dust are obtainable om the Natal Archies Debs INIESTIGATING CULTURAL PRODUCERS 55 Parliament ae recorded in Hansard, In adition, government department, fiom the DCMS (Department for Culture, Medis and Sport) tthe ONS (Ofc for National Statistics), are asource ot sttisis and indus overviews, (Geran academiclibrais hee har cops of many ofthese documents They areal coaiabl det fom the public institutions Increasingly, however all recent documentation s published onthe websites thee bodes and isdn Ioadale without charge Ty access information on a sector in the media and cultural industries one can aso seek out sbutes within tht indasry isle The fist question the researcher should ask ‘des the calkral industry in question have a profes sd union body? The second iso they have ne or more “ade” or prfesional publications" A thi do they have any regulators fii ‘mtchdogso interest groups/assaciatons which monitor them” Fach ofthese leaons canbe potential source of dats sbot the indus try imolved. As well as offering quantitative data about the sector, they are likely to ofr very useful information for oether investigation, Who ae the ‘ain companies and the key figures in he sector? What ae the latest develop rents and debates, and what ae the important events that have taken place sitin the inde recent? ‘Lastly one can go dicey to the companies an institutions themselves. Extensive information on all aspect of the BBC is ely accesible fom the ‘Corporation and its website Every commercial compuny doing businssin the ‘UK must publish its annual report and accounts and other information (Companies House Leeps records on cach company. Companis quoted on + stock maretare also oblige to pubish nd circulate information about ther selvesona requlr basis In most ese once agai, thse dys the company will sk publish all such itormation on ts website "At the same tine there is + lrge amount of commercial information on ‘he cultural industries which i relatively inaceeube. Some reports and financial/industry data are produced by commercial research compas and ‘expensive to obtain. Other reports tend tobe produced and cculated only amongst industry specialists. Others sil are regarded as very politeal or ‘commercially sesitve and ae the hardest acess. In each ofthese exes the tcademic researcher must make personal contact with those invaved and !ttempt to persuade the a pas on copies (sce Below on interviewing pra sionals and making contact) ‘When I hepan to research thers ofthe public reltons (PR) industry and itsrelatonship tones journalism, [began with he industry jouralsandso- iations oeated and read through several ery? copesof PR Ve and sted the IPR (Intute of Pubic Relations ~ now CIPR) and PRCA (Public Relations Consultants Association) All Uece were a ood source of industry and government reports and statistics abou the profession. They directed me s6_senow pavis a ‘owazd farther academic and industry sources When turning o journals I ‘preached the NUJ (National Union of Jourralsts) and rad through back pies of The Journal, Pre Gist and Brith Journalism Review, amongst bathers, As inthe PR sector I was abl to bald up'a macro piture ofthe pro= ‘sion fom what ound, A compari of aggregated data fram thew pro- fesions fered some interesting findings. Labo came to know mich more bout the main companies valved, high-profile individuals and the shape of the industries which in turn, presented asf pote interviewees and ease tts for further research, T hen began approaching some of the leading Companies to gain further quantitative data and abo to attempt more micro level observations ‘Asan approuch to research poiicl exanomy assumes much bout the inuences on, and behaviours of individual involved in cultural production ndviduatvel ations and cognitions cannot realy be investigated closes Man algo objet to the emphasis placed on pl snd economic nflvenes sad pint ou tha satitcaldata maybe interpreted and presented gute sub- jectvely On theater hand itis very appropriate for developing macr-leve_ account of cultural indy or individual es. Findings maybe more repre- Seataiveon a general evel andthe datcallected more objeive/epesentative than other research material although this vigorously dene by some). ‘Texts and Textual Analysis, A second research approach investigates cultural production through am analy- sis of cltra outputs. This involves applsing forms of textual analysis to 2 ‘eres of printed, sal oad tex AS with politcal economy approaches, ‘ultra production's investigated indie Wider deductions about he pro ‘lcton (and alo consumption) process are infeed fom assessments of what 's produced, In analysing texts researchers seek a ighlighthecommon codes, term, idologis, discourse and individuals tha come wo dominate cultural butpats What an be sid abot the individual eaturedin the txts? Who are thecontibutors tothe tex Hove are the texts eared and presented? Whatare the terms and phrases uscd and what ether symbole mang? What are the tssumptions embed in the texts? The answers to sch questions, gathered from analysis arethen used ta bid argument about those who construct ul- tural prods and wider socal, cultural an linguistic conditions. "The texts and research aes chosen vary considerably Hall eal. (1978), Hall (1973) andthe Glasgow Unversity Media Group (107, 1980) chose «© Took a the ideological “odes and “primary defines’ that dominate news cov- ‘erage. Foucault (1975) and Said (197) collected numberof historical, seit ‘nd instatona texts and used them o deduce social discourses about ‘isi- Pliary power’ and “the Other’. Fiske and Harley (1978), Dyer (1982) and INESTIGATING CULTURAL pROMUCERS 57 Geraghty (199) have decode the language and symbolism of visa ets, in television and film, and’ made links to wider soil and cultural values Williamson (1978) and Goldman (1g) have deconstructed advertising texts andthe meansby which they attempt spelt consumers Since cutureand language are contained inal frm of socal interaction, so texts fa can te foun in a range of media farms and soil stings (see Barthes 1972, forexample). Musicale, clothing poll speeches, posters, poplar map szines and geographical layouts have ll been recorded and analysed a texts ‘The frst concern ofthe rscarcher st obtain and coc the texts to be analysed. Are the texts recorded or recordable! Are there enough texts avail- the forthe kindof analysis proposed? Primed txts ate unl the eset to obtain. Thus news and magazine articles are commonly selected sth uit of analysis in research, although poblc document yc and pla spesches {rin theory aot much harder to wack down. Much mater can be found in Specie libraries such asthe newspaper section of the Brith Libray in Colindale, London. The texts of key publications going bck eer deeades, «an be fs in paper or microfilm form. More cen text are sual stored ‘lestoniclly and obtainable on dabase collections and wcbsits, Companies sich as LexisNexis ofe lager nevs databases of multiple publications, thus ‘enabling wider veaches Visual andaudio text calection ramon hit-and-iss Mair and more dificul general slthoup digtalisation fe making this ese, Films and popular television seis are simpler to cllce because they are ‘esier Co record, store and dstbuce. For other forms of textual anal the researcher has tobe more erative in tacking doen and recoding the texts needed for amass Having obtained the tus, the researcher then has to think abou number of other issues: How many teats shoul be analysed? How, i there are many > ‘chose from, shoulda sample be selected? Ie the anassis going tobe quanta tive or qualitative ofa mivtre of the two? The ansvers to these questions ae reached by 4 combination of practical and heretical considerations (Quaiatve forms of textal or discndrse analysis tendo loka far Fener texts tue in more depth. Quantitative analyses usually generate large amounts of simple, numerical data fom many more units Whether the researcher wants to deduce conclusions about a singe cultural product, such asa soap oper or 4 newspaper, of 0 make lager statements about soap operas or news has a Jmaet upon the breath and depth of selon. ‘The ey, practical considers ‘ios are that (1) the seetion should bea representative samp of the txts under consideration enough to suppoet any wider conclusions (2) the quan tym prt, dictated bythe amount of time and writing space needed per text and, (3) part bythe amount af texts asia, "Time spans mea formats urmbersof competing cultural products and keywords canal be wed ‘0 increase or decrease the spl number accordingly

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