Archive for publications, January 2026

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[Commlist] new book: The Cultural Industries, 5th edition

Mon Jan 05 23:22:14 GMT 2026





The fifth edition of David Hesmondhalgh's book /The Cultural Industries/ is published this month. Some kind endorsements and the chapter contents follow below and further details of the book are available here

https://uk.sagepub.com/en-gb/eur/the-cultural-industries/book288709

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The Cultural Industries is a monumental achievement. A mighty work of intellectual synthesis and field leadership, it brilliantly lays out what the cultural industries are, how they work, how they’re changing, and why they matter. Hesmondhalgh has done us all a great service by writing it in the first place, and by taking the time to make meaningful and substantial revisions, including this latest edition, with its incorporation of newly important issues such as AI. *Jean Burgess, Distinguished Professor of Digital Media, Queensland University of Technology, Australia*

/The Cultural Industries/ is justly celebrated for many reasons, but what I find most compelling is the civic and moral passion that infuses every page. While never polemical, Hesmondhalgh makes clear why the making of culture matters and what’s at stake. With each new much-awaited edition, it is this quality that ensures the book’s timeless relevance. *Rodney Benson*, *Professor of Media, Culture and Communication, New York University, USA*

This new edition is both a classic - guiding research on the cultural industries over the past decades - and the most comprehensive, up-to-date study of these industries today. Written in an intelligent, personal voice, the book not only provides sharp definitions and insightful discussions, but also offers a deep and sustained reflection on the continuities and changes in power, technologies, culture, and production. *Thomas Poell, Professor of Data, Culture & Institutions, University of Amsterdam, Netherlands*

In this far-reaching and comprehensive new edition of /Cultural Industries,/ David Hesmondhalgh has done it again: he has expertly traced the rapidly changing cultural industries landscape through a variety of elements, from government to big tech to ordinary people and beyond.  In so doing, he offers readers not only a brilliant analysis of why cultural industries matter, but for /whom/ they matter. *Sarah Banet-Weiser, Annenberg School for Communication, University of Pennsylvania, USA*

**

Critical, cosmopolitan, and timely, the fifth edition of Hesmondhalgh’s magnum opus offers the most coherent and comprehensive introduction to cultural industries to date. It systematically identifies the pitfalls and pathways for socio-cultural change. Drawing on and advancing cultural studies as well as political economy frameworks, this volume is theoretically innovative, self-reflexive, and rich in case studies. This indispensable resource is essential for all students and scholars examining cultural industries, whether traditional or emergent, problematic or progressive. *Jack Linchuan Qiu*, *Professor of Media Technology, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore*

**

*CONTENTS*

**

Chapter 1: Change and Continuity, Power and Creativity

Chapter 2: The Cultural Industries Approach: Distinctive Features of Culture-Producing Businesses

Chapter 3: Theories of Culture, Theories of Cultural Production

Chapter 4: Cultural Industries in the Twentieth Century: Key Features

Chapter 5: Why the Cultural Industries Began to Change in the Late Twentieth Century

Chapter 6: Policy Change in Media and Telecommunications: Marketing and Copyright

Chapter 7: Cultural Policy: Creative Cities, Creative Industries, Creative Economies

Chapter 8 Ownership (1): Concentration, Conglomeration and Corporate Power, 1980–2010

Chapter 9: Ownership (2): Concentration, Conglomeration and Corporate Powe, 2010 Onwards

Chapter 10: How the Claims of Digital Optimists Were Contradicted by the Rise of Digital Culture

Chapter 11: The Effects of Digital Networks on Individual Cultural Industries

Chapter 12: Creativity, Commerce and Organisation

Chapter 13: Working Conditions and Inequalities in the Cultural Industries

Chapter 14: Internationalisation: Neither Globalisation nor Cultural Imperialism

Chapter 15: Texts: Diversity, Quality and Social Justice

Chapter 16: Conclusions: A New Era in Cultural Production?

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