Bourdieusian media studies: returning social theory to old and new media

Abstract

Media and communication studies have a tendency of ‘bracketing out’ the social dimension. This is problematic since all media and all communication are located in social contexts. However, calls for strengthening the disciplines’ relation to social theory have been made. To this end, Pierre Bourdieu's sociological thinking offers a fruitful approach of inquiry. This paper explores the epistemological consequences of insisting on the location of media production, content, and use in social contexts in terms of Bourdieu's social theory. A Bourdieusian approach to media and communication involves understanding that media production is always situated in complex, multi-leveled relations of power, be it the journalistic field, the field of cultural production, or the wider social space occupied by the ‘produser’ of mediated content. The perspective furthermore implicates a refusal to succumb to an ‘internalist vision’ when studying communication that is the result of isolating communication from its context of production and consumption, which is where meaning is generated. Finally, it involves studying media use as a classifying practice that is increasingly mediated through the habitus and an agents’ position in social space as the media landscape gains in appeal to persons – as individuals with preferences, tastes, and lifestyles – rather than masses. It is argued that a move towards Bourdieusian media studies ushers the study of old and new forms of media production, content, and use onto paths that provoke critical and enduring questions of the role of media in society.