The field of television production: Genesis, structure and positiontakings

As a leading scholar of the social conditions of cultural production, Pierre Bourdieu had little to say about large-scale media production. This study, however, brings the theoretical-empirical program that underpins studies of fields of cultural production within the Bourdieusian tradition to bear upon the Swedish field of television production. Two research questions are posed. First, what is the structure of the field of television production—what are the main hierarchies that divide agents in the field? Second, how do positions in the field correspond to agents’ ways of orienting themselves—how are various position-takings distributed in the field? These questions are answered with a multiple correspondence analysis with agents in the Swedish field of television production (n = 378). The field of television production is structured, first, along an incumbent-challenger axis; and second, according to an axis separating public service broadcasters and journalists rich on cultural capital from commercial broadcasters involved in drama and entertainment production. These dynamics, along with the position-takings assumed by agents in the field, are discussed.