Kommersiell mediekultur : En etnografisk studie av TV-producenter och TV-produktion

This dissertation examines a commercial media culture as articulated by a television production company in Stockholm, Sweden, and is based on nine months of extended fieldwork. The dissertation discusses the production process, its problems and constraints, and the role of the producer using a theoretical framework elaborated by Pierre Bourdieu. The TV producers are involved in a constant process of interpretation, evaluation and negotiation related to the symbolic and economic power relationships that determine the field. The practical production cannot be reduced to a one-way communication system. Commercial TV production involves more than supplying the channels with those programs they demand and attracting the desired target groups; programs produced at the company must be "good" and give a "value" to the viewers. The production process implies a tightly interwoven relationship between the producer and the audience, conceived of in terms of "the average person". The producers create an image of an audience based on statistical figures, reference persons, viewer ratings and of themselves functioning as surrogate audience. This constructed viewer wants something more than pure entertainment. The public-educator ideal that has been a reason for the Swedish public-service-television's authority and legitimacy, has come to be an important component of the television produced at the described television company. A public-service tradition is reformulated to fit into a modern, commercial context, at the same time as it legitimizes and gives meaning to its own enterprise. The created viewer's demand for entertaining knowledge and information is satisfied