Renegotiating quality TV in the Swedish pressAmerican serial television and Sweden's post-monopoly television landscape
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 “a...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Sciendo
2021-02-01
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| Series: | Nordicom Review |
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| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.2478/nor-2021-0012 |
| _version_ | 1827846415529803776 |
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| author | Frykholm Joel |
| author_facet | Frykholm Joel |
| author_sort | Frykholm Joel |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | 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. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-12T09:13:25Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-f5b7ac2ad33347369537aa6a7c9c7160 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2001-5119 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-12T09:13:25Z |
| publishDate | 2021-02-01 |
| publisher | Sciendo |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Nordicom Review |
| spelling | doaj.art-f5b7ac2ad33347369537aa6a7c9c71602023-09-02T14:53:01ZengSciendoNordicom Review2001-51192021-02-01421597810.2478/nor-2021-0012Renegotiating quality TV in the Swedish pressAmerican serial television and Sweden's post-monopoly television landscapeFrykholm Joel0Centre for Languages and Literature, Film Studies, Lund University, SwedenIn 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.https://doi.org/10.2478/nor-2021-0012american serial televisionquality tvswedish television culturecultural journalismcultural consecration |
| spellingShingle | Frykholm Joel Renegotiating quality TV in the Swedish pressAmerican serial television and Sweden's post-monopoly television landscape Nordicom Review american serial television quality tv swedish television culture cultural journalism cultural consecration |
| title | Renegotiating quality TV in the Swedish pressAmerican serial television and Sweden's post-monopoly television landscape |
| title_full | Renegotiating quality TV in the Swedish pressAmerican serial television and Sweden's post-monopoly television landscape |
| title_fullStr | Renegotiating quality TV in the Swedish pressAmerican serial television and Sweden's post-monopoly television landscape |
| title_full_unstemmed | Renegotiating quality TV in the Swedish pressAmerican serial television and Sweden's post-monopoly television landscape |
| title_short | Renegotiating quality TV in the Swedish pressAmerican serial television and Sweden's post-monopoly television landscape |
| title_sort | renegotiating quality tv in the swedish pressamerican serial television and sweden s post monopoly television landscape |
| topic | american serial television quality tv swedish television culture cultural journalism cultural consecration |
| url | https://doi.org/10.2478/nor-2021-0012 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT frykholmjoel renegotiatingqualitytvintheswedishpressamericanserialtelevisionandswedenspostmonopolytelevisionlandscape |