Distinctions in the media welfare state: audience fragmentation in post-egalitarian Sweden

TLDR

The study applies Bourdieu’s sociology of culture to illuminate the ongoing fragmentation of media audiences and users in Sweden. Using multiple correspondence analysis on a 2015–2016 Swedish national survey of 1,604 respondents, the authors map contemporary class structure and media practice distribution, then introduce the concept of audience islands to explain societal and media fragmentation. They find that social groups reproduce status by monopolizing distinct media repertoires, that class shapes orientation in a high‑choice media environment even within a media welfare state, and that the audience‑island concept captures this non‑media‑centric fragmentation.

Abstract

This study draws on Pierre Bourdieu’s sociology of culture in order to shed new light on the ongoing fragmentation of media audiences and users. We use a multiple correspondence analysis on national survey data (n = 1604) collected in Sweden in 2015–2016 to (1) create a statistical representation of the contemporary Swedish class structure and proceed to (2) analyze the distribution of a broad range of media practices and media preferences in that space. Results show that social groups reproduce their social status by monopolizing distinct media repertoires. We are able to show that class matters for how people orient themselves in an increasingly high-choice media environment – even in a so-called media welfare state. Following the results of our media-sociological approach, we introduce the concept of audience islands which promotes a non-media-centric understanding of the fragmentation of society and media audiences.