The representative view of international economists holds that cultural industry is an outward extension and expansion of culture with creativity as its core, and it is a variety of cultural products with "creation" as its core and other inputs. The core of cultural industry is artistic creation in the traditional sense: music, dance, drama, literature, ornamental art and handicrafts. Cultural industries below the core include book publishing, TV broadcasting, newspapers and movies.
UNESCO defines cultural industry as a series of activities to produce, copy, store and distribute cultural products and services according to industrial standards. Cultural industries include film and television, audio and video, photography, advertising, information consultation, mass media, pop music, graphic design and many other industries.
The Ministry of Culture and the National Bureau of Statistics define the cultural industry as a general term for business activities engaged in the production and circulation of cultural products and the provision of cultural services. It is characterized by developing cultural undertakings by means of industry, producing with culture as resources, and providing cultural products and services to the society to meet the growing spiritual and cultural needs of the people.
It is generally believed that the concept of cultural industry is a hierarchical system: the narrow concept is "cultural creative industry", which refers to the creation, sales and display of cultural and artistic works. Cultural industries include literary and artistic creation, music creation, photography, dance, craft design and architectural design, as well as various other creative artistic activities and fields; The extended concept is "cultural production and communication industry". Through the development of paper media, magnetic media, electronic media and optical media, cultural products have gradually realized the nature of "cultural industry". It has expanded the production, transformation and consumption process of cultural products with the technology of recording and dissemination, and transformed them into industrial processes and industrial production activities. Under this concept, cultural industries include press and publication, radio, film and television, audio-visual industry and audio-visual industry. The general concept is "industry based on cultural significance", including all products with cultural symbols, whether traditional or modern, from clothing industry to all products with modern trademarks.
To sum up, cultural industry is a general term for operating industries that take cultural value as the basic source of economic value, engage in the creation, production and circulation of cultural products and provide cultural services. The main industries are: press and publication; Broadcasting, television, film and audio-visual industries; Printing of cultural products and reproduction of recording media; Stationery manufacturing industry; Stationery wholesale and retail; Cultural information dissemination service industry. In addition, there are culture and art, sports, entertainment, cultural tourism, convention and exhibition, advertising consulting, art and handicrafts.
The cultural industry has the following characteristics:
1. Cultural industry is a creative industry characterized by innovative thinking. Many scholars define cultural industry as creative industry, and point out that innovation and creativity are the most important dynamic characteristics. The essence of cultural industry is the industrialization of culture, and cultural industry must create wealth with new ideas, new concepts and new methods.
2. Cultural industries are compatible and permeable with other industries. Any industrial form incorporates different cultural connotations, such as food culture, automobile culture, home culture, corporate culture and so on. With the acceleration of the interaction between economy and culture, the production field and expansion space of cultural industry have shown an unprecedented radial state, and the development space of cultural industry has become an open space.
3. The core of cultural industry is to meet people's spiritual needs by creating culture, developing cultural resources and producing cultural products and services around culture.