Does social class organize the consumption of alternative news in Singapore?

• Main Author: Song, Xiao Wen
• Other Authors: Sam Han
• Format: Final Year Project
• Language: English
• Published: 2015
• Subjects: DRNTU::Social sciences::Sociology::Social stratification; DRNTU::Social sciences::Mass media::Alternative media
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10356/65560
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

Bourdieu’s (1984) theory of cultural capital highlights consumption as an important activity expressing and establishing social classes, thus creating distinction between them. However, postmodern conditions enabled by technological advances have led to the widespread availability of many cultural goods and mass consumer culture, supposedly making class stratification in consumption ambiguous. Alternative news media in Singapore is a consumption field with such postmodern characteristics, and is also a significant field given Singapore’s history and socio-political context. Postmodernity notwithstanding, building on Holt’s (1998) work, I posit that class-stratified consumption is evident within this field. An interpretive study was designed enquiring if, and how, social class acts to organize alternative news consumption in Singapore. Analyzing interview transcripts, distinctions between classes in several dimensions were discerned, fundamentally reflecting ‘tastes of necessity’ and ‘tastes of luxury’. Meanwhile, alternative news consumption has become a form of political resistance for some with higher cultural capital resources.