I enjoyed Bourdieu's depiction of postmodern TV. Television is one of the most powerful media sources around the world. "...the evening news on French TV brings together more people than all the French newspapers together...when the information supplied by a single news medium becomes a universal source of news, the resulting political and cultural effects are clear" (328).
The news tries to favor topics that are appealing to "everyone" and according to Bourdieu usually just "confirm what they already know" so that problems don't arise. People expect to see certain things when they turn on their TV; our society likes structure and wants to be satisfied. Most "romantic comedies" for instance give you around the same order of events and usually the same kind of ending that we want to see in order to be satisfied. For example, most women when watching those movies want the fairytale ending and if they don't get it then the movie was unsuccessful and shocking. The same goes for the news. The news tries to give us the type of stories that they think we want. To keep our attention in the news we like to hear violent and bizarre stories therefore the news sometimes might be criticized for exaggeration and biases. Audience ratings are what counts; Bourdieu emphasizes the competition in the journalistic field of TV which shines through in onscreen interactions. (331)
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