Creative Labour: Media Work in Three Cultural Industries (Culture, Economy and the Social)

Synopsis

What Is It Like To Work In The Media? Are Media Jobs More 'creative' Than Those In Other Sectors? This Book Explores These Issues In The Creative Industries, Using A Combination Of Original Research And A Synthesis Of Existing Studies. Machine Generated Contents Note: 1. Introduction: Can Creative Labour Be Good Work? -- 1.1. Good And Bad Work In The Cultural Industries -- 1.2. Creativity As Doctrine -- 1.3. Critical Backlash, The Debate And Our Own Approach -- 1.4. Definitions And Boundaries -- 1.5. Research Design: Selection Of Industries And Cases -- 1.6. Methods: Interviews And Participant Observation -- 1.7. Outline Of The Book -- Pt. One Theoretical Synthesis -- 2. Model Of Good And Bad Work -- 2.1. Marx On Work And Alienation -- 2.2. Sociological Concept Of Alienation -- 2.3. Towards A Model Of Good And Bad Work Beyond Alienation -- 2.4. Good Products As Good Work -- 2.5. Autonomy As A Feature Of Good Work? -- 2.6. Self-realisation As A Feature Of Good Work? -- 2.7. Post-structuralist Critique Of Work And The Problem Of Values -- 2.8. Subjective Experience -- 3. Specificity Of Creative Labour -- 3.1. Outline Of The Chapter -- 3.2. Three Approaches To Cultural Production -- 3.3. General Neglect Of Labour In Studies Of Cultural Production And Possible Reasons -- 3.4. Political Economy And The Specificity Of Creative Labour -- 3.5. Raymond Williams On The Specificity Of Creative Labour: The Communication Of Experience -- 3.6. Critical Conception Of Creative Autonomy And Its Two Variants -- 3.7. Creative Work And Social Class -- 3.8. Cultural Studies On Creative Labour: Subjectivity And Self-exploitation -- 3.9. Debate About Creative Work -- Pt. Two Empirical Study -- 4. Management Of Autonomy, Creativity And Commerce -- 4.1. Creativity, Commerce And Organisations -- 4.2. Creative Management Function -- 4.3. Managing Creative Autonomy: Magazines -- 4.4. Managing Creative Autonomy: The Case Of Music Recording -- 4.5. Pressures Of Autonomy (1): Marketisation In Broadcasting -- 4.6. Pressures On Autonomy (2): The Rising Power Of Marketing -- 4.7. Anxieties About Autonomy -- 4.8. Pressures On Autonomy (3): The Obligation To Network -- 4.9. Conclusions -- 5. Pay, Hours, Security, Involvement, Esteem And Freedom -- 5.1. Quality Of Working Life In The Cultural Industries -- 5.2. Pay, Working Hours And Unions -- 5.3. Security And Risk -- 5.4. Esteem And Self-esteem -- 5.5. Challenge, Interest And Involvement -- 5.6. Experience Of Autonomy -- 5.7. Ambivalent Experiences -- 6. Creative Careers, Self-realisation And Sociality -- 6.1. Decline Of The Career? -- 6.2. Finding The Right Creative Occupation -- 6.3. Fragility Of Creative Careers -- 6.4. Defining Yourself Too Much Through Creative Work -- 6.5. Teamwork, Socialising, Networking -- 6.6. Isolation -- 6.7. Self-realisation And Sociality: Ambivalent Features Of Modern Creative Labour -- 7. Emotional And Affective Labour -- 7.1. Immaterial Labour, Affective Labour And `precarity' -- 7.2. Emotional Labour -- 7.3. Media Labour And Symbolic Power -- 7.4. Talent Show: Budget, Commissioners And Independents -- 7.5. Emotional Labour And The Anxieties Of Star-making -- 7.6. Pleasure And Sociality On The Production Team -- 7.7. Affective Labour And Immanent Cooperation? -- 7.8. Conclusions -- 8. Creative Products, Good And Bad -- 8.1. Questions Of Quality -- 8.2. Pleasures And Satisfactions Of Making Good Cultural Products -- 8.3. Conceptions Of Good Texts -- 8.4. Bad Texts: Frustration And Disappointment -- 8.5. Conceptions And Explanations Of Poor Quality Work -- 8.6. Negative And Positive Experiences Of Quality -- 9. Audiences, Quality And The Meaning Of Creative Work -- 9.1. Creative Workers Thinking About What Audiences Think -- 9.2. Magazines: Is The Reader Everything? -- 9.3. Music: A Communicative Thing Or A Private Thing? -- 9.4. What Can Audiences Handle? -- 9.5. Television And Audience Size: Ratings Tyranny? -- 9.6. Audiences, Ambivalence And Projection -- 10. Politics Of Good And Bad Work -- 10.1. Hardest Way To Make An Easy Living? -- 10.2. Unions And The Struggle For Good Creative Work -- 10.3. Work And Life: Choosing Not To Self-exploit? -- 10.4. Spreading Good And Bad Work: How Intractable Is The Social Division Of Labour?. David Hesmondhalgh And Sarah Baker. Includes Bibliographical References And Index.