CAIRN-INT.INFO : International Edition
English

Do individuals with different social characteristics tend to watch—and like—the same sitcoms? And when they do, are they watching for the same reasons? How are preferences formed for one sitcom over another? This article proposes an analysis based on a survey conducted in Toulouse between 2007 and 2010 among young people from different social backgrounds. Continuing work in the sociology of cultural practices, we aim to highlight how the diversity of television practices and preferences is socially structured. Indeed, exploring the question of taste contributes to understanding the formation of membership in groups and their reproduction. The weight of cultural capital, unevenly distributed in the social sphere, remains very important both in processes of reception and in social differentiation. On the one hand, we point out the social conditions that make possible a certain homology between positions and opinions. On the other hand, we show how (socially situated) modes of appropriation function in the case of watching “culturally dissonant” sitcoms.

Keywords

  • reception
  • sitcoms
  • sociology of cultural practices
  • plural appropriations
  • social differentiation
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