Distinction recapped: Digital news repertoires in the class structure. (August 2018)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Lindell, Johan
• Is Part Of: New media & society. Volume 20:Number 8(2018)
• Page Start: 3029
• Page End: 3049
• Publication Date: 2018-08
• Subjects: Bourdieu -- class -- cultural capital -- digital inequality -- media repertoires -- media use -- multiple correspondence analysis -- news consumption -- news repertoires -- social space; Mass media -- Social aspects -- Periodicals; Mass media and culture -- Periodicals; Information technology -- Social aspects -- Periodicals; Internet -- Social aspects -- Periodicals; 302.2305
• DOI: 10.1177/1461444817739622
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1461-4448

Abstract

This article mobilizes Pierre Bourdieu's full theory-method to study how class shapes our news orientations in a digital, high-choice media environment. An online survey ( N = 3850) was used to create a statistical representation of the contemporary Swedish social space with variables measuring access to economic, cultural, social, and cosmopolitan capital. A range of digital news preferences and practices were then given co-ordinates in that space. Results highlight the importance of class habitus for the formation of digital news repertoires. Since different groups form altogether different news repertoires—and distaste the preferences of the groups most different to themselves (in terms of access to capitals)—news practices and preferences solidify the positions of groups in the social structure. The study sheds light on the relationship between social and digital inequality and challenges the psychological and individualistic bias in contemporary research on news media use.