ABSTRACT
When questions about business and industry have featured in the field of media and cultural studies over recent years it has usually followed (implicitly or explicitly) Nicholas Garnham’s call for ‘an analysis of culture structured around the concept of the cultural industries’ (Garnham 1990: 155). One characteristic that is particularly striking about the literature here is the shift in emphasis which occurred in this writing during the twentieth century. This is signalled by the movement from a notion of ‘the culture industry’ (singular) as a critical concept introduced in the writings of Theodor Adorno and Max Horkheimer, towards a concept of the cultural industries as a plural and a descriptive concept.This has been accompanied by another shift, from a concern with the plight of the creative artist to a concern with the character of a creative industry.The shift is from the concerns of how capitalism impacts upon creative work, to how capitalism manages, organises and provides the conditions within which creativity can be recognised and rewarded.
