Pre class Bourdieu

I really like this guy. He manages to put into words many of the thoughts I had on TV but that I had trouble expressing. First of all he speaks of the evolution of French television. In the 1950s, the programs offered were cultural, historical adaptation of classics. But after the 1990s the topics had all shifted to talk shows, game shows that people are dying to be a part of in the audience or on the set. A kind of voyeurism and exhibitionism to quote Bourdieu, which was such a foreshadowing of our obsession with reality TV shows nowadays. TV became this dump of fake reality because they “must reach” the largest audience possible. And it has. It is the most powerful means of news diffusion. And journalists owe their importance to the monopoly of this media. Because of this they can impose on society the way they view the world, their opinions and solutions. They have become a sort of middle class spiritual guide. We believe the news because we feel like we have to. It’s the news. It is a form of consensus and audience ratings that pushes us to agree. Everyone is watching it then it must be right. The problem is TV and the news are not oriented towards anything complex or of a symbolic revolution like art or literature as Bourdieu puts it but only confirms what we already know and leaves our mental structure intact. We are told how to think, this system promotes social conformity. For example everything on the news now seems to be about human interest: movie stars, royal families, visiting politicians… it reduces important subjects to tabloids, it creates a political vacuum, depoliticizing everything to reduce it to scandals and anecdotes. We still manage to get a “lesson” drawn out of the event, some sort of moral or ethical lecture. Bourdieu states all these issues and claims that he know that his solutions are of utopian range but he asks us to see television with a critical thinking and realistic understanding of the situation. Other wise it will remain a vicious circle.