On Television and Journalism

This volume is an attack on television - and on the "collaboration" between intellectuals and the media which, Bordieu argues, is leading to new and more invidious forms of dumbing down.

He examines the way in which apparently serious TV debate gives way to soundbite, as a series of talking "experts" go through the motions of comment and consideration in increasingly self-referential circles.

Known only for being well-known; professional "experts" with no legitimate claim to that title; "fast-thinkers" no longer capable of serious thought; these members of the "pundit circuit" fatally compromise their integrity in the interests of their public image.

The result: banal and worthless drivel, shaped almost entirely by the imperatives of television ratings wars rather than any consideration of the truth.

Television, Boudieu claims, has now had a profound and largely detrimental effect not just on journalism, but on the formerly very separate worlds of art, literature, philosophy, politics, justice and even science - all of which are in danger of being forced to submit to what he describes as the "commercial plebiscite" of audience ratings.