Fictional Entertainment and Public Connection: Audiences and the Everyday Use of TV-series

Abstract

This study explores how audience’s everyday use of fictional entertainment may facilitate public connection. Whereas the public connection perspective thus far primarily has been employed in the study of audience’s use of factual media, this study, first, conceptually updates the notion of public connection and develops a framework sensitized to capture the significance also of audience’s use of TV-series. Second, based on large-scale qualitative data collection reflecting the sociodemographic diversity in Norway, this study empirically highlights how the use of TV-series forms part of diverse yet typical orientations toward the sphere of politics. The study finds that given favorable combinations of repertoires of media use and habits, alongside resources, values, and dispositions, the viewing of TV-series clearly provides audiences with a link to the sphere of politics. It further finds, however, that the civic exploits of watching TV-series also hinge on a number of factors connected to audience’s background resources.