The digital media field and social differentiation

Abstract

Digitalization has revealed new research horizons in sociological analysis. However, digital analysis tend to avoid classical sociological theory in favour of other theoretical sources. The aim of this article is to show the viability of a Bourdieuan analysis of digital culture. The French sociologist’s theoretical and methodological tools may be useful to avoid both the digital utopianism of many contemporary analyses and neo-Marxist critical approaches, centered mostly on economic exploitation. Field theory may reveal new strategies of social distinction based on the technological world. It may identify different social logics opposed to the tradicional mass media, and competing among them to define legitimacy in the digital world.