Voice, silence and social class on television

Bibliographic Data

ID11485629
AuthorsPeter Jakobsson (0000-0002-5468-7229, Södertörn University), Fredrik Stiernstedt (0000-0002-5247-8212, Södertörn University, corresponding author)
Year2018
Volume33
Issue5
Pages522-539
Publication date2018-10-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueEuropean Journal of Communication (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0267-3231 • E-ISSN: 1460-3705
PublisherSAGE Publications (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1177/0267323118784819
OpenAlexW2810560461
LanguageEN
Citations received4
References cited29

The question of voice is a central and timeless political issue. Who gets to speak? Who is silenced? Who is listening? One of the main arenas for voice in modern, advanced democracies is the media. Media infrastructures, technologies, institutions and organizations are a precondition for political voice in large-scale societies, but are also an important factor in distributing the possibilities for voice among different groups and sectors of the population. In this article, we take on the question of voice in relation to social class and aim to analyse how the medium of television gives voice to people from different social classes. This study operationalizes the theoretical notion of voice by asking the following questions: who has the opportunity to appear and speak on television, to whom do they speak and under what circumstances does this communication occur? Based on a content analysis of television in Sweden, the results from this study show that voice is distributed in a highly unequal manner. It also shows that the relations enacted by television appearances conform to the social hierarchy. Whereas people from the ruling class frequently speak to people from the working and middle classes, they are rarely spoken to by members of a class that is positioned below their own. Television thus constructs a social hierarchy of voice and authority that reproduces and legitimizes already existing social hierarchies

Active listening · Aesthetics · Class (philosophy · Epistemology · Hierarchy · Media studies · Political science · Politics · Public relations · Silence · Social class · Sociology · Communication · Law · Media Studies and Communication · Social and Educational Sciences · Social Media and Politics

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