Renegotiating Quality TV in the Swedish Press : American Serial Television and Sweden's Post-Monopoly Television Landscape
Frykholm, Joel LU
(2021)
In Nordicom Review
41(1).
p.59-78
- Abstract
- In this article, I explore the reception of American “quality” serial television in Sweden from 1999 to the mid-2010s. My analysis includes how cultural critics and journalists writing for Sweden's leading newspapers conceptualised American serial television as “quality TV” and as legitimate “art”, and it charts the ways in which these discourses relate to the reconfiguration of Swedish television from public service monopoly to niche-oriented multichannel system. The analysis uncovers a process of cultural consecration that was based on comparisons with already consecrated art forms, applications of authorship discourses that promote certain individuals as genius television auteurs, and deployment of critical protocols borrowed from... (More)
- In this article, I explore the reception of American “quality” serial television in Sweden from 1999 to the mid-2010s. My analysis includes how cultural critics and journalists writing for Sweden's leading newspapers conceptualised American serial television as “quality TV” and as legitimate “art”, and it charts the ways in which these discourses relate to the reconfiguration of Swedish television from public service monopoly to niche-oriented multichannel system. The analysis uncovers a process of cultural consecration that was based on comparisons with already consecrated art forms, applications of authorship discourses that promote certain individuals as genius television auteurs, and deployment of critical protocols borrowed from literary criticism – all in service of pre-established cultural hierarchy and “good taste”. This article also highlights the ubiquity of American quality serial television across the Swedish television landscape, which suggests that such programmes represent both a niche product and a mass phenomenon with extensive reach and multidimensional appeal. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
https://lup.lub.lu.se/record/48009a35-5ef7-4397-99a3-1cfb59e1bb37
- author
- Frykholm, Joel
LU
- organization
- publishing date
- 2021
- type
- Contribution to journal
- publication status
- published
- subject
- keywords
- American serial television, quality TV, Swedish television culture, cultural journalism, cultural consecration
- in
- Nordicom Review
- volume
- 41
- issue
- 1
- pages
- 59 - 78
- publisher
- The Nordic Information Centre for Media and Communication Research
- external identifiers
-
- scopus:85102598923
- ISSN
- 2001-5119
- DOI
- 10.2478/nor-2021-0012
- language
- English
- LU publication?
- yes
- id
- 48009a35-5ef7-4397-99a3-1cfb59e1bb37
- date added to LUP
- 2021-03-09 10:35:32
- date last changed
- 2022-04-27 00:38:07
@article{48009a35-5ef7-4397-99a3-1cfb59e1bb37,
abstract = {{In this article, I explore the reception of American “quality” serial television in Sweden from 1999 to the mid-2010s. My analysis includes how cultural critics and journalists writing for Sweden's leading newspapers conceptualised American serial television as “quality TV” and as legitimate “art”, and it charts the ways in which these discourses relate to the reconfiguration of Swedish television from public service monopoly to niche-oriented multichannel system. The analysis uncovers a process of cultural consecration that was based on comparisons with already consecrated art forms, applications of authorship discourses that promote certain individuals as genius television auteurs, and deployment of critical protocols borrowed from literary criticism – all in service of pre-established cultural hierarchy and “good taste”. This article also highlights the ubiquity of American quality serial television across the Swedish television landscape, which suggests that such programmes represent both a niche product and a mass phenomenon with extensive reach and multidimensional appeal.}},
author = {{Frykholm, Joel}},
issn = {{2001-5119}},
keywords = {{American serial television; quality TV; Swedish television culture; cultural journalism; cultural consecration}},
language = {{eng}},
number = {{1}},
pages = {{59--78}},
publisher = {{The Nordic Information Centre for Media and Communication Research}},
series = {{Nordicom Review}},
title = {{Renegotiating Quality TV in the Swedish Press : American Serial Television and Sweden's Post-Monopoly Television Landscape}},
url = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.2478/nor-2021-0012}},
doi = {{10.2478/nor-2021-0012}},
volume = {{41}},
year = {{2021}},
}