SOME ACHIEVEMENTS AND LIMITATIONS OF CULTURAL STUDIES Cultural studies is a diverse and fragmented field of study, but at its core is the attempt to examine and rethink culture by considering its relationship to social power. In the past, there was some hostility towards this interdis- ciplinary field from many of the approaches discussed above. In turn, some cultural studies writers were very negative about the above approaches, including political economy and radical media sociology. Yet cultural stud- ies approaches, at their best, have much to offer in terms of aiding our under- standing of meaning and cultural value. This can help fill gaps left by other approaches to the cultural industries – especially when it comes to questions of culture, creativity and texts, which are obviously central to the cultural industries. I begin by discussing some of the main contributions that cultural studies has made to understandings of culture and power, as well as some of the limitations of approaches that have sometimes (often inaccurately) been labeled as ‘cultural studies’. I then turn to discuss some recent approaches to media production and media industries that have claimed to draw on cul- tural studies. First, cultural studies has argued convincingly that ordinary, everyday cul-
