ABSTRACT

This chapter argues that the historical challenges within the fields of social science and humanity, and attempts to avoid reductionist tendencies, are quite traceable within the field of audience-migrant. The point of departure is a historical challenge, a dichotomy, and that is the dichotomy of individual autonomy vs. media structures. Methodological nationalism indicates the naturalisation of the nation-state by the social sciences'. The claim for the responsibility to inform and enlighten people in society has stood as the logic in legitimizing cultural production within the field. The dialectic between these poles is important in grasping a very vital notion in Bourdieu: the notion of logic, the basis of what we perceive as the natural way of doing things. Hesmondhalgh believes that while Bourdieu's work on cultural consumption is remarkably comprehensive his coverage of cultural production is highly selective, and very much focused on restricted production'.