Between Breaking Bad and Big Brother : Social Class and Television Preferences in Croatia

Abstract

This article addresses TV preferences as a marker of class divisions both as a type of embodied cultural capital and as a pattern of consumption within the local and global cultural structure in Croatia. Data analysis is extracted from the survey ‘Social Stratification in Croatia: Structural and Subjective Aspects’, conducted on a nationally probabilistic sample of adult Croatian citizens. Factor analysis discovered two main dimensions of television preferences: reality spectacle and foreign fiction preferences, which were recognised as indicators of localised and globalised culture preferences. Further analysis established that these factors are also structured along the class positions of the respondents. Using multiple regression analysis, data suggest the conclusion that the working class prefers TV content in the domestic language and heavy on popular entertainment programming (soap operas, talent, and reality shows). However, the dominant class repudiate ‘lowbrow’ TV content, which highlights class divisions in the cultural field. The analysis sheds light not only on how class positions structure these preferences but also on the important role of age, gender, and music taste play in the formation of television preferences.

Keywords

age cultural capital post-socialist context social class television preferences

Introduction

Over the past few decades, an abundance of research regarding television viewing patterns has emerged.¹ A closer look at these publications reveals that there are some studies which apply broader social and cultural theories, especially those revolving around the concept of cultural capital (Bennett et al., 2009; Friedman, 2011; Krolo et al., 2020; Rowe and Bennett, 2018; Sanli, 2013; Straubhaar, 2007). These studies used diverse methodological approaches, and many were focused on specific cultural phenomena. For example, some of the studies mapped television and film genre preferences in certain countries (Bennett et al., 2009; Rowe and Bennett, 2018), while some analysed taste in specific genres (like comedy, Friedman, 2011; talk show, Sanli, 2013; or reality television, Skeggs et al., 2008), using descriptive statistics, multiple correspondence analysis or qualitative analysis. These studies offer an overview of how television preferences are structured in different contexts. And while there is substantial data that addresses the issue of TV consumption and cultural capital in Western European societies, there are fewer reports when South-East European countries are taken into consideration. We argue that Southeast European countries, or Croatia in this case, represent a distinct case for this analysis since it carries a different social and cultural structuring than most Western societies. Overall, there is a lack of research that explores the relationship between social class, cultural capital,² and media preferences in post-socialist societies. As Cvetičanin et al. (2021) and Cvetičanin and Popescu (2011: 445) argue, in hybrid societies which have experienced transition and have been ‘Westernised’, the opposition between cosmopolitan or global culture and local culture is more important than the opposition between ‘high’ and ‘low’ culture. A similar distinction has been found in Slovenia between commercial folk-pop culture, commercial pop culture, and ‘high’ or urban globalised popular culture (Luthar and Pušnik, 2017)³. Following the Bourdieusian approach to the social structuring of cultural tastes, as well as more recent contributions in the field of cultural consumption literature, this analysis will offer an insight into how television consumption is structured along class positions in Croatia and what role age and gender play in explaining those distinctions.

Television preferences as markers of class distinctions

Television, whether defined in a classical broadcasting category or as a part of an expanding infrastructure of streaming services, is perhaps the most precise proxy of newly established differences between local, national, and global culture (Straubhaar, 2007). Television has transformed from its linear broadcast form, which relied on a scheduled programme and linear one-to-many distribution, to a non-linear distribution, where audiences choose the content based on their own schedule, greatly influencing the type of content being produced (Lotz, 2018). This comes because of debates and discussions initiated in the 1980s when televised production started to create content that some authors argued had a distinctive aesthetic (Francis and Gibson, 1993; Leal, 1990; McCabe and Akass, 2007; Press, 1991) that resonated with ‘highbrow’ tastes represented by dramas like Twin Peaks. Specifically, the loss of importance of traditional ‘legitimate’ culture and the emerging privatisation of cultural consumption in households, made television a more important marker of cultural distinction (Gripsrud et al., 2011).

In the age of digital streaming, this seems to be the case even more as television now has ‘transmission of programs in multiple forms via a range of platforms to a diversity of screen types with in-built multidimensional interactive capacities’ (Bennett et al., 2018). This has also made this medium a symbol of a postmodern cultural moment driven by rapid globalisation. Therefore, in the contemporary digital environment and with niche production of companies like HBO, Netflix, Amazon Prime, and Showtime, it can be argued that a medium that was once described as a box for working-class entertainment opened to the variety of class tastes in an interconnected world.

This emergence of ‘taste communities’ (Lotz, 2018: 492–493) offers a glimpse into a new configuration of cultural preferences. However, even as some authors consider this position to be a result of a process of blurred boundaries between high and popular culture (Friedman, 2011: 351) and the rise of ‘omnivore’ tastes (Peterson and Kern, 1996), recent studies seem to point to the conclusion that new constellation of class distinction arose from these relations, rather than erasing them altogether (Konig et al., 2009; Straubhaar, 2014). Distinctions that were, as Bourdieu discovered in his research (Bourdieu, 1984), rooted within the class configuration of a given society are now reflected as a separation between the cosmopolitanism of the global elite and consumers of localised culture in the domestic language (Roose, 2015). The opposition between cosmopolitan and local orientation is pronounced in many areas and creates division in music or television preferences (Prieur et al., 2008). Similar findings are also detected in the paper by Rowe and Bennett (2018), where Australian audiences show television preferences divided along the lines of globalised and localised content. However, as Bennett et al. (2009: 135) noted in their previous research, respondents with taste in ‘highbrow’ televised content elaborated their preferences as a judgement of aesthetics, while ‘lowbrow’ respondents liked the pleasure of ‘escapist entertainment’.

While movies and TV shows generally do not fall into the same category of production, they do share overlapping patterns of taste, which leads to the conclusion that they can be analysed as a model of TV consumption. For example, in studies by Friedman (2011), Kuipers (2006), and Claessens and Dhoest (2010), authors concluded that lower-educated respondents were more drawn to the ‘lowbrow’ comedy movies while higher-educated respondents preferred comedies that had required specific knowledge to decode the narratives. Studies on class and cultural consumption usually find that the working class largely does not participate in culture but spends more time watching television and expresses preferences for certain television genres, like soap operas or reality television (Le Roux et al., 2008; Prieur and Savage, 2011). Again, similar conclusions can also be found in the work by Lindell and Hovden (2017), in which respondents of lower income see television sets as a part of everyday activities, a sort of background noise that does not require specific engagement and critical valorisation (McCarthy, 2001). Simultaneously, reality shows and soap operas are more likely to be a preference for working-class audiences, while global news and shows about culture do not hold much value within the same group (Lindell and Hovden, 2017). However, audiences that belong to the middle-class income group carefully pick programmes and generally view television as a disruptive factor for everyday routine (Skeggs and Wood, 2011: 944). For example, among audiences with higher cultural capital, there is a more noted preference for ‘quality TV’, content with complex stories (e.g. The Wire, The Sopranos, Orange is the New Black, The Handmaid’s Tale) and a distaste toward ‘lowbrow’ content like reality TV (Gripsrud et al., 2011; Konig et al., 2009). Of course, this preference is not only reserved for TV shows, as the same goes for the movies that share similar distinctions content-wise. Audiences with lower cultural capital generally express less distaste, except for the highly complex content (Gripsrud et al., 2011). ‘Lowbrow’ television contrasts norms in households with higher socio-economic status, which puts more restrictions on cultural consumption. In households with lower socioeconomic status, there are fewer restrictions on television consumption, and watching television is seen as a social activity in which all the household members are included (Notten et al., 2012).

Besides class positions, several studies point to the fact that preferences can also be age-related (Glevarec and Cibois, 2020), connected to a less clear marker of inequality through knowledge of the foreign language (Croatia) (Pješivač and Imre, 2016), or to differences in systems of culture production (Lizardo and Skiles, 2009). As Prieur and Savage (2013) argue, more and more studies find an important intersection of age, gender, and class in defining cultural distinctions. However, some arguments suggest expanding existing dimensions regarding cultural capital to grasp the complexities of preferences in television and film. One of those dimensions can be found in other cultural capital forms, especially embodied ones.

Exploring embodied capital and cultural consumption patterns

Several authors claim that studies should focus more on the notion of embodied capital, which explains not only what is being consumed but also the ways of consumption of these objects (Friedman, 2011; Holt, 1997; McCoy and Scarborough, 2014). Prieur and Savage (2013) offer empirical evidence for this perspective, citing various authors that point to the conclusion of the importance of embodied tastes in class distinction, especially visible in the consumption of TV content. For example, Savage et al. (2010) addressed the popularity of the so-called ‘crap TV’ among younger middle-class professionals in Great Britain. The respondents were able to pinpoint ‘trashy’ elements, which by itself is an expression of embodied cultural capital as it provides them with the argument of judgement that those without a higher level of cultural capital do not exhibit. This can especially be true for the type of postmodern ironic attitude toward content that would otherwise be labelled as unworthy of middle-class or upper-class attention (McCoy and Scarborough, 2014; Prieur et al., 2008). However, in the case of comedy as a TV genre, ‘fine distinctions’ of these embodiments are visible as the upper class shows clear reluctance to consume the comedic content that they perceive to be ‘lowbrow’ (Friedman and Kuipers, 2013). These distinctions are manifested in the ways something is consumed. For example, higher-educated audiences show gratification in decoding nuanced meaning or irony in ‘highbrow’ comedy (Claessens and Dhoest, 2010; Friedman, 2011; Kuipers, 2006; Prieur et al., 2008), which is different from relaxing entertainment preferred by lower educated audiences. The authors also found gender differences in these dispositions. Women tended to value the emotional appeal in films, and men preferred the adventure and action aspect (Daenekindt and Roose, 2013). Furthermore, Legon (2010) established fine distinctions regarding the way high school students in France consume music and movies. Students from families with higher educated parents will seek out new albums and performers outside of the popular and mainstream narrative and will perform concentrated listening, unlike students from families with lower educated parents who will not exhibit this type of embeddedness toward the consumption of music and movies.

Similarly, taste in music can also contribute in this case as music represents a broad array of cultural repertoires that are symptomatic for contemporary cultural consumption. This ‘intersection’ of tastes, although they are both part of embodied cultural capital, are fundamentally different forms of art and, therefore, potentially offer a new potent factor in explaining the relation between tastes and social class. This can be supported by research from Glevarec and Cibois (2020) in the case of France and the research on class and cultural division in the UK by Le Roux et al. (2008). More precisely, Glevarec and Cibois (2020) conclude that younger generations do not prefer classical music and jazz; conversely, they display preferences for hip-hop and electronic music. This taste is related to taste in movies as they consume action and science-fiction movies alongside previously mentioned music genres. According to Le Roux et al. (2008), respondents who like rock, heavy metal and urban music simultaneously prefer science-fiction, horror and comedies. However, respondents who displayed taste in classical music and operas also like to watch news on television, musicals and drama. Again, these preferences are strongly related to age and social class. Furthermore, research by Meuleman and Savage (2013) points to the fact that tastes in music and movies form the taste structured around cosmopolitan identity, but to clarify fine distinctions, they need to be juxtaposed in the analysis. Finally, in the analysis by Purhonen and Wright (2013), it is clear that specific types of genres in music are associated with the specific types of consumption in television and films and that those types of consumption can be considered as a class marker vis-a-vis taste. For example, in research from Tonković et al. (2022), multiple correspondence analysis and cluster analysis showed preferences in pop-folk domestic music are grouped with the consumption of reality-spectacle TV genres on one axis, while on the other axis, foreign rock and alter music are grouped with foreign fiction genres.

The evolution of television genres and preferences in Croatia

Television is still one of the dominant sources of news for audiences in many countries, although online and social media are on the path of overtaking this position (Newman et al., 2023). The medium itself has also shifted and become more hybrid, combining linear and on-demand modes of consumption – video and visual content is becoming more popular regardless of the media platform (Newman et al., 2023).

Television is also positioned high among Croatian media audiences. The transition to digital television in the early 2010s positively influenced the diversity of ownership and media content (Roller, 2014). There are around thirty digital terrestrial television channels in Croatia, eleven broadcasting on the national and twenty on the local and regional level (AEM, 2020), and a wide range of channels offered via cable, satellite, or different Internet and streaming providers. The television market in Croatia has a relatively high concentration (Bilić et al., 2018). Longitudinal studies of television genre development show a higher diversity of genres offered, however, with the decline of the information and news programmes and an increase in entertainment genres and fiction (Peruško and Čuvalo, 2014). Recent data show that reality programmes and films make up the highest share of the content offered on Croatian television channels (Peruško et al., 2021).

Audiences in Croatia still primarily watch television in its traditional form, although non-linear forms of consumption are on the rise (e.g. on-demand television and streaming platforms; IPSOS, 2013, 2016) Although all the online media combined are in first place among news sources for Croatian digital media audiences, when looking at the specific media brands, television channels attract some of the largest share of audiences and enjoy the highest levels of trust (Peruško, 2023). Commercial television channels have taken over both in terms of audience size and trust (IPSOS, 2016; Peruško, 2023), and nationwide channels are preferred compared to local and regional ones (IPSOS, 2016). According to the regular television market research by the regulatory agency, in January 2023 (a month with the highest number of television viewers), national television channels were the most popular among television audiences, while specialised children and film television channels were also among the ten most popular channels (AdScanner, 2023). However, research shows that audience satisfaction with free television content is low (IPSOS, 2016). Besides film, the offered television genres on digital terrestrial channels are opposite to the expressed preferences of television audiences, which predominantly claim to prefer film, documentary and information and news programmes, while reality programme is among the least preferred (IPSOS, 2016). Most watched television programmes on digital terrestrial television are sports, entertainment, and news, while soap operas are the most popular television series genre (IPSOS, 2013). Regarding wider genre preferences, the most preferred are news and current affairs (Roller, 2014). When focusing on satellite, cable and Internet providers, Croatian audiences mostly prefer children’s, fiction, documentary, and sports channels (IPSOS, 2013).

Academic research on television audience preferences in Croatia has been scarce. Vesna Roller argued that the increased diversity in television content does not match audiences’ preferences because the diversity expanded among entertainment and light entertainment genres and decreased among news, current affairs, and other programmes in the public interest (Roller, 2014). Analysis of youth television preferences found that preferences for foreign fiction are explained by parental cultural capital and students’ taste in music in foreign languages, as opposed to preferences for domestic, mostly reality and soap programmes, which are explained by parental popular taste and students’ taste in music in Croatian and regional languages (Krolo et al., 2020). In addition, research on intergenerational transmission of cultural capital has confirmed that high-school students’ preferences for reality-spectacle TV genres are related to their working-class background and traditional values (Tonković et al., 2022). In a more recent study using a snowball sample, Karuza Podgorelec (2023) analysed preferences toward Turkish telenovelas, which she explained by cultural proximity and cultural capital. Her results showed that audiences of Turkish telenovelas perceive a cultural proximity to Turkey, are less culturally engaged, know fewer foreign languages, and prefer a narrower number of genres (e.g. domestic telenovelas). She also demonstrated that lower cultural capital is correlated to preferences for locally produced soap operas and reality shows, while higher cultural capital to preferences toward ‘quality tv’ and critically acclaimed films, especially those produced in the West. Therefore, she found distinctions not just between ‘low’ and ‘high’ culture but also between local and global are driven by differences in cultural capital. However, there is no previous research on the social profile of adult television audiences in Croatia on a representative sample. The study presented in this article is thus one of the first studies which explore the structure of television preferences of Croatian audiences and the role that social class and cultural capital play in forming these preferences.

Research questions and hypotheses

The goal of this research is to explore the relationship between social class, taste in music, and television preferences. Based on the theoretical assumptions, we propose the following research questions and hypotheses:

Research Question 1 (RQ1). Is there a relationship between social class and television preferences?

Hypothesis 1 (H1). Working class position is positively related to reality-spectacle preferences.

Hypothesis 2 (H2). Working class position is negatively related to foreign fiction preferences.

Research Question 2 (RQ2). What is the relationship between taste in music and television preferences?

Hypothesis 3 (H3). Taste in domestic pop-folk music is positively related to reality spectacle preferences.

Hypothesis 4 (H4). Taste in domestic and foreign pop-rock music is positively related to foreign fiction television preferences.

Data, variables, and methods

Data

We use data from the survey ‘Social Stratification in Croatia: Structural and Subjective Aspects’, funded by the Croatian Science Foundation. The survey was conducted in November and December 2017 among a nationally probabilistic sample of adult Croatian citizens (N = 1000). Stratified multi-stage sampling was used, with a response rate of 45%. To adjust the sociodemographic characteristics of the sample with the population, weighting factors were used with respect to gender, age, education, size of settlement, and region. The main sociodemographic characteristics of the sample are presented in Table 1.

Table 1.

Sociodemographic structure of the sample.

		%
Gender	Male	48.3
Gender	Female	51.7
Age	18–29	18.3
	30–39	16.3
	40–49	15.8
	50–59	19.4
	60 and more	30.3
Education	Primary	15.4
	Secondary	65.7
	Tertiary	18.9
Size of settlement	Less than 2000	38.6
	2001–10,000	16.2
	10,001–100,000	19.8
	More than 100,000	25.4

Instruments and scales

Dependent variables

We used the scale of TV preferences with 19 items. Respondents were asked how much they like or dislike each genre on a 5-point scale ranging from 1 (‘don’t like at all’) to 5 (‘like very much’). Items from this scale were adjusted from the previous research on cultural capital and television preferences among Croatian youth (Krolo et al., 2020) and included various TV and film genres (information, news and political programmes, Hollywood movies and independent movies, documentary movies and series, live sports, fantasy and science fiction series, foreign crime series, foreign and domestic sitcoms, foreign and domestic soap operas, reality shows, talent shows, cooking shows, and game shows as well as TV shows that deal with science and culture, religion, lifestyle, and agriculture). An exploratory factor analysis with varimax rotation was used, which resulted in five latent dimensions, explaining 57.7% of the variance. The first factor included five items and explained 18.2% of the total variance, while the factor loadings in the rotated matrix ranged from 0.721 to 0.660 (foreign sitcoms, foreign crime series, Hollywood movies, fantasy and Science fiction series, and independent movies⁴). The second factor included four items and explained 15.3% of the variance, while the factor loadings ranged from 0.775 to 0.634 (reality shows, talent shows, lifestyle shows and foreign and domestic soap operas). The third factor included three items (political programmes, science and culture programmes, news), with the factor loadings from 0.768 to 0.685, while the fourth factor included game shows, cooking shows, agriculture programmes and domestic sitcoms, with the factor loadings from 0.715 to 0.490. Finally, the last factor consisted of a single item (live sports). Considering that the primary purpose of this paper was to examine the influence of class on the formation of television taste in the context of local-global division, we decided to focus only on the first two dimensions, from which we formed two aggregated indices: taste in foreign fiction TV (M = 15.04, SD = 4.25, Cronbach’s α = 0.75) and taste in reality spectacle TV (M = 11.17, SD = 3.61, Cronbach’s α = 0.71).

Independent variables

To examine the relationship between social class and television preferences, we used Bordieusian analysis of social class. To construct social classes, Doolan and Tonković (2021) analysed the same data set, using a range of indicators of economic (e.g. income, savings, and real estate possession), social (e.g. membership in organisations) and cultural capital (e.g. respondent’s educational level, number of books in the household, and number of foreign languages spoken by respondent). Using hierarchical cluster analysis, which was performed on the results obtained from multiple correspondence analysis, six specific classes in the Croatian social space were identified: dominant class, older middle class, younger middle class, younger working class, older working class, and underclass. Although relevant for interpreting the classes, sociodemographic indicators (e.g. age and gender) were of secondary importance. Selected features of the social classes are presented in Table 2.⁵

Table 2.

Selected indicators of sociodemographic characteristics and capitals across six classes.

	Dominant class (12.1%)	Older middle class (13.7%)	Younger middle class (15.4%)	Younger working class (24.9%)	Older working class (19%)	Underclass (14.9%)
% male	53.7	52.6	48.1	48.2	42.1	31.5
% age 18–29	23.1	11.7	35.1	30.5	9.5	1.3
% age 60 or more	23.5	48.6	10.7	8.2	34.0	68.2
% higher education	76	28.3	34.4	6	1.1	0
% more than 100 books at home	54.5	20.6	27.3	2.8	2.6	2.0
% two or more foreign languages	42.1	14.6	39	21.5	2.6	2.0
% with savings	60.5	36.4	47.9	10.8	6	11.2
% higher income	29.8	9.3	16.9	2.4	0.6	1.4
% membership in professional organisations	19	4.4	5.8	0	0	0

Taste in music was measured using a scale comprising 16 items. Respondents were asked how much they like or dislike each genre on a 5-point scale ranging from 1 ( ‘don’t like at all’) to 5 ( ‘like very much’). They could also choose the answer ‘don’t know this genre’, which was excluded from the analysis. To determine the latent dimensions of the instrument, an exploratory factor analysis with varimax rotation was used. Five specific factors were extracted, explaining 65% of the variance. Based on factor analysis, we created three indexes: taste in domestic and foreign and pop-rock music with five items: domestic and regional rock, domestic pop-rock, domestic and regional alternative, foreign pop and foreign rock music (M = 16.72, SD = 4.45, Cronbach’s α = 0.77), taste in domestic pop-folk music with three items: domestic pop-folk, traditional and patriotic music (M = 10.86, SD = 2.87, Cronbach’s α = 0.68), and elite taste in with two items: classical music and jazz (M = 5.15, SD = 2.26, Cronbach’s α = 0.72).

Finally, we also included sociodemographic variables of age, gender, and settlement size in the regression model.

Analytical strategy

We employed a multiple regression analysis. It consisted of three separate groups of independent variables. The first group included sociodemographic variables (age, gender, settlement size). The second one considers the effects of social class, while the third one looks at the impact of taste in music. These predictors were then tested in relation to two dependent variables: taste in foreign fiction TV and taste in reality spectacle TV. The results are presented in Tables 3 and 4. Both tables present standardised regression coefficients (β). Although the sample size was 1000, the total number of respondents in our analysis is lower since 11% of respondents who answered that they never watch TV (including online) did not answer the scale of TV preferences and consequently were excluded from the analysis.

Table 3.

Results of multiple regression analysis predicting foreign fiction television preferences (N = 761).

Predictor variable	Model 1	Model 2	Model 3
Gender: male	.079*	.039	.047
Age (ref. 18–29)
30–39	−.067	−.065	−.062
40–49	−.101*	−.053	−.054
50–59	−.232***	−.146***	−.144***
60 and more	−.400***	−.240***	−.205***
Size of settlement (ref. more than 100,000)
Less than 2000	−.111*	−.022	.014
From 2000 to 10,000	−.072	−.036	−.008
From 10,001 to 100,000	−.044	.001	.026
Social class (ref. younger middle)
Dominant class		−.062	−.065
Older middle class		−.134**	−.100*
Younger working class		−.114*	−.076
Older working-class		−.236***	−.154**
Underclass		−.373***	−.252***
Taste in music: domestic and foreign pop-rock			.260***
Taste in music: domestic pop-folk			.021
Taste in music: elite			.070
R ²	.134	.209	.275
R² change		.075	.066

p<.05; **p<.01; ***p<.001.

Table 4.

Results of multiple regression analysis predicting reality spectacle television preferences (N = 817).

Predictor variable	Model 1	Model 2	Model 3
Gender: male	−.351***	−.322***	−.316***
Age (ref. 18–29)
30–39	−.076	−.071	−.085*
40–49	−.035	−.055	−.069
50–59	.002	−.038	−.061
60 and more	−.037	−.078	−.079
Size of settlement (ref. more than 100,000)
Less than 2000	.168***	.096*	.048
From 2000 to 10,000	−.010	−.030	−.048
From 10,001 to 100,000	.095*	.059	.047
Social class (ref. younger middle)
Dominant class		−.155***	−.120**
Older middle class		.020	−.006
Younger working class		.094*	.076
Older working-class		.142**	.103*
Underclass		.116*	.091*
Taste in music: domestic and foreign pop-rock			.085*
Taste in music: domestic pop-folk			.272***
Taste in music: elite			−.057
R ²	.141	.197	.271
R² change		.056	.074

p<.05; **p<.01; ***p<.001.

Results

According to the results presented in Table 3, when the predictors of foreign fiction TV are considered, the explanation of total variance is 27.5%. Model 1 demonstrates that older age is a strong and negative predictor (60 and more: β = –.400***; 50-59: β = –.232***), which will remain significant in subsequent models. This model also shows a negative correlation with the size of settlement less than 2000 (β = –.101*) and a positive correlation with the male gender (β = .079*), however, both predictors will lose significance in Models 2 and 3.

When the social class is introduced (Model 2), the percentage of total variance explained increases from 13.4% to 20.9%, indicating the importance of social class in predicting the preferences for foreign fiction TV. Besides the two oldest age groups, strong and negative predictors are the older working class (β = –.236***) and underclass (β = –.373***), providing strong support for H2. However, the older middle class is also negatively correlated with foreign fiction television (β = –.134***), which suggests the importance of age besides social class position.

Finally, once the taste indicators in music are added (Model 3), the percentage of total variance explained increases to 27.5%. The strongest predictor in this final model is the taste in foreign and domestic pop-rock (β = .260***), which confirms H4. At the same time, inclination toward classical music and jazz ( ‘elite’ taste) shows no significance, as well as traditional and popular taste in music. What is important to notice in this final Model is that older age groups, as well as the underclass and older working class, remain stable predictors, indicating the intersections between age and social class in shaping television preferences.

Our second regression analysis (Table 4) for reality spectacle television preferences demonstrates almost the same amount of explained variance (27.1%). In the first sociodemographic group of variables, male gender is a strong and negative predictor, meaning that women are more likely to enjoy soap operas and reality, talent and lifestyle shows (β = –.351***). This result remains stable even after introducing social class and taste in music. The findings from this first Model also suggest that respondents from rural areas and settlements with less than 2000 inhabitants are more likely to prefer reality spectacle content (β = .168***). However, this predictor lost significance in the final model.

Considering social class positions (Model 2), it is visible that the dominant class is negatively correlated with reality spectacle television preferences (β = –.155***). In contrast, members of the older and younger working class, as well as the underclass, tend to enjoy watching popular entertainment programmes, confirming H1. Considering the final model, the indicator with the highest predictive value is the female gender, followed by the taste in domestic pop-folk music (β = .272***), which confirms H3. Although with a smaller value of β coefficients, class remain significant in this final model, with the dominant class as the most significant (β = –.120**). Finally, there is also a negative correlation with the age group 30–39 (β = –.085*).

Discussion and conclusion

The first aim of this paper was to gain insight into the class distinctions in television preferences in a post-socialist society that has been exposed to profound changes in its political and economic, and social structures in the last three decades. The second purpose of this study was to analyse the role of taste in music in shaping preferences for global and local tastes in television. We hypothesised that working-class individuals and those who prefer folk music in local languages will be more drawn to local and ‘lowbrow’ types of television content while less likely to enjoy ‘quality TV’ (McCabe and Akass, 2007). This type of television content in the highly Westernised and commercialised Croatian media landscape is related to globalised production in predominantly English language, making foreign fiction TV preferences more likely among the younger and highly educated urban population. To analyse the role of social class and cultural capital in two distinctive types of television preferences, reality spectacle and foreign fiction, we used data from the survey on social stratification in Croatia and the Bourdieusian model of social class developed on the same data set (Doolan and Tonković, 2021).

On a general note, our analysis confirms Bourdieusian theoretical framework since social class positions are clearly related to television preferences. As expected, the working class and the most deprived underclass are negatively associated with foreign fiction TV, which remains stable even after the introduction of the taste in music. Furthermore, our analysis suggests that this type of television taste is also unappreciated by the older middle class, which points to the intersections between class and age in explaining television consumption patterns. Reality spectacle preferences, however, are negatively related to the dominant class. This finding highlights the class distinctions in Bourdieusian theoretical tradition in which the dominant class repudiate ‘lowbrow’ content related to popular culture. Although the relationship with the working class is less strong, the analysis suggests that individuals from the underclass and older working-class tend to express positive attitudes toward reality spectacle content. Like previous research on cultural consumption in Southeast Europe (Cvetičanin and Popescu, 2011; Cvetičanin et al., 2021; Karuza Podgorelec, 2023; Krolo et al., 2020; Tonković et al., 2022), there are consistent differences in cultural consumption patterns between the highly educated upper class and less educated working class, which go along with the local/global division in the cultural repertoires.

The special focus in this paper has been given to the embodied cultural capital, operationalised as music preferences. Interestingly, foreign fiction preferences are not related to elite taste in music, which implies that this specific type of taste is not aligned with classical ‘highbrow’ culture but probably represents a new form of cultural capital in the globalised cultural constellation. As expected, foreign fiction preferences were not related to ‘lowbrow’ pop-folk music taste in domestic and regional languages, which is in line with the conclusion from Cvetičanin and Popescu (2011) about the language as a key factor in explaining the distinction between local and global taste in post-socialist context. However, there is a clear relationship between domestic and foreign pop and rock music, which is one of the most important predictors of the foreign fiction pattern of TV consumption. When the reality spectacle genres are considered, domestic pop-folk music is clearly related to the similar ‘lowbrow’ taste in television. This also implies that reality spectacle is a preferable choice for locally oriented working-class individuals, while it is not preferred by highly educated upper-class or middle-class individuals.

Our analysis supports the importance of age in explaining television preferences. However, contrary to Bennett et al. (2009), it is not the most important contributing factor. According to Bennett et al. (2009: 142), the most striking differences between ages were in quizzes and game shows, news and current affairs, art programmes, documentaries and police and detective shows, which are preferred by older audiences, while younger audiences preferred comedy, film, and reality programmes. Our analysis confirms this but with certain distinctive variations. In particular, respondents older than 50 years do not prefer foreign fiction genres, while there are no substantial generational differences when the reality spectacle genres are considered. What is important to note here is that older generations in Croatia did not have compulsory English education in elementary and secondary schools, which explains their discomfort with the content in English. Similar conclusions can be found in Cvetičanin and Popescu (2011), where knowledge of foreign languages, especially English, was associated with preferences for foreign cultural content. These findings point to the type of cultural seclusion in which the knowledge of the English language is a prerequisite for participation in a globalised culture. Considering younger age groups, however, it is visible that they are inclined toward Westernised and globalised television production, but they are also more eclectic in their consumption behaviour. Finally, there is an intersection between age and class positions, in which the underclass and older working class represent at the same time, older and less affluent social strata.

Although exploring gender differences in television preferences was not a primary goal of this research, we found that gender was an important predictor of reality spectacle preference. This issue was more thoroughly explored by Bennett et al. (2009) but a clearer connection between female youth respondents and reality spectacle can be found in Krolo et al. (2020). It can be concluded that reality spectacle preferences are gendered regardless of age and that this genre particularly appeals to women. Some explanations of these relations can be found in previous studies (Behm-Morawitz et al., 2016). It can also be noted that there are no clear differences between men and women when it comes to foreign fiction, although there was a positive association with the male gender in the first step of regression analysis.

We should also emphasise several limitations in this analysis and recommendations for future research. First, this analysis did not explicitly use individual television products as items on a scale but genres themselves as a point of reference for taste. This potentially does not offer a clearer insight into the fine distinctions within one specific genre. For example, we argue there is a distinction in production and audience taste between shows like True Detective and the CSI franchise. Second, the same can be applied to the music preferences scale, as we also used music genres as a reference point. Finally, our sample did not allow us to explore generational differences in more detail because it was a nationally probabilistic sample with 1000 respondents in total. Future research should be more oriented toward specific television products and should introduce a mixed methodology with more qualitative insights into patterns and meanings of television consumption to grasp the complexity of cultural capital and class distinctions in the global media environment (Gray and Lotz, 2019 [2012]; Letak, 2022).

Footnotes

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank Aleksandar Štulhofer and two anonymous reviewers for their valuable comments and suggestions. Any shortcomings are of course solely our own.

Funding

The authors disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: This work has been supported in part by the Croatian Science Foundation under the project number 3134.

ORCID iD

Krešimir Krolo

Notes

Author biographies

Krešimir Krolo is an Associate Professor at the Department of Sociology, University of Zadar, Croatia. His research interest revolves around sociology of media, youth, and culture with the special emphasis on the intersection between these fields as the generator of urban development. He also researched the role of social media in generating the social capital and the role of the cultural capital in media literacy. He has published in Poetics, Cultural Trends, Cultural Sociology and Men and Masculinities.

Željka Tonković is an Associate Professor at the Department of Sociology, University of Zadar, Croatia. Her research interests include sociology of culture and urban sociology, with particular reference to cultural participation and consumption, social inequalities, and the role of culture in urban development. Her research is also focused on network theory and analysis and its application in the study of culture. Her work has been published in Cultural Trends, Cultural Sociology, Social Networks, and European Societies, among others.

Dina Vozab is an Assistant Professor at the Department of Media and Communication, Faculty of Political Science, University of Zagreb. Her research interests include media and democracy, comparative media systems, and media audiences. She has published in journals such as Central European Journal of Communication, International Journal of Communication, Journalism, and others.

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