The omnipresence of professional experts in the debates and marketing strategies around movies raises the question of the proximity of their judgments with those of the “ordinary consumer”. Two theoretical perspectives compete on this matter: Divergence or convergence of tastes. Based on a sample of 622 popular films released between 2005 and 2009 in France, this research confirms the divergence of tastes: Professional experts grant no special value to movies that ordinary consumers prefer. However, our results also suggest that publication on the Internet of “hybrid” tastes (those of web users and media critics) builds an artificial form of convergence which can be useful for the market's actors.
AlexanderV.D. (2003), Sociology of the Arts: Exploring fine and popular forms, Oxford: Blackwell Publishers.
2.
AssoulyO. (2008), Le capitalisme esthétique. Essai sur l'industrialisation du goût, Paris, cerf.
3.
BaumanS. (2007), A general theory of artistic legitimation: How art worlds are like social movements, Poetics, 35, 1, 47–65.
4.
BeckerH.S. (1982), Art worlds, Berckeley, CA, University of California Press.
5.
BenhamouF.MoreauN. (2007), L'économiste et la question du goût. Intégration ou dénégation d'un concept ?, in AssoulyO. (coord.), Goûts à vendre, essai sur la captation esthétique, Paris, IFM/Editions du Regard, 207–221.
6.
BielbyD.D.BielbyW.T. (2004), Audience aesthetics and popular culture, in FriedlandR.MohrJ. (coord.), Matters of culture: Cultural sociology in practice, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 295–317.
7.
BourdieuP. (1977), La production de la croyance, Actes de la recherche en sciences sociales, 13, February, 3–43.
8.
BourdieuP. (1979), La distinction. Critique sociale du jugement, Paris, Les Éditions de Minuit.
9.
BourdieuP. (1992), Les règles de l'art. Genèse et structure du champ littéraire, Paris, Les Éditions de Minuit.
10.
BrownT. (1978), Reviewers on reviewing, Journalism Quarterly, 55, 1, 32–38.
11.
CarrollN. (1997), The ontology of mass art, Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism, 55, 2, 187–199.
12.
DiMaggioP. (1982a), Cultural entrepreneurship in nineteenth-century Boston, Part II: The classification and framing of American art, Media, Culture and Society, 4, 4, 303–322.
13.
DiMaggioP. (1982b), Cultural entrepreneurship in nineteenth-century Boston, Part I: The creation of an organizational base for high culture in America, Media, Culture and Society, 4, 1, 33–50.
14.
DiMaggioP. (1991), Social structure, institutions, and cultural goods: The case of the U.S., in BourdieuP.ColemanJ. (coord.), Social Theory for a Changing Society, Boulder, Colorado: Westview Press, 133–155.
15.
EthisE. (2005), Sociologie du cinéma et de ses publics, coll. 128, Paris, Armand Colin.
16.
FlichyP. (2010), Le sacre de l'amateur. Sociologie des passions ordinaires à l'ère numérique, Paris, Éditions du Seuil et La République des idées.
17.
FleuryL. (2006), Sociologie de la culture et des pratiques culturelles, coll. 128, Paris, Armand Colin.
18.
GansH.J. (1999), Popular culture and high culture: An analysis and evaluation of taste, New York: Basic Books.
19.
HarriesG.Walh-JorgensenK. (2007), The culture of arts journalists. Elitists, saviors or manic depressives?, Journalism, 8, 6, 619–639.
20.
HeinichN. (2001), La Sociologie de l'art, Paris, La Découverte.
21.
HeinichN. (2007), Ce que la sociologie fait au goût, in AssoulyO. (coord.), Goûts à vendre, essai sur la captation esthétique, Paris, IFM/Editions du Regard, 117–127.
22.
HolbrookM.B. (1999), Popular appeal versus expert judgments of motion pictures, Journal of Consumer Research, 26, 2, 144–155.
23.
HolbrookM.B. (2005), The role of ordinary evaluations in the market for popular culture: Do consumers have “good taste”?, Marketing Letters, 16, 2, 75–86.
24.
HolbrookM.B.AddisM. (2007), Taste versus the market: An extension of research on the consumption of popular culture, Journal of Consumer Research, 34, 3, 415–424.
25.
HolbrookM.B.LacherK.T.LaTourM.S. (2006), Audience judgments as the potential missing link between expert judgments and audience appeal. An illustration based on musical recordings of my funny Valentine, Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 34, 1, 8–18.
26.
JullierL. (2000), Qu'est-ce qu'un bon film ?, Paris, La Dispute.
27.
KarpikL. (2007), L'économie des singularités, Paris, Gallimard.
28.
LahireB. (2004), La culture des individus. Dissonances culturelles et distinction de soi, Paris, La Découverte.
29.
LarceneuxF. (2007), Buzz et recommandations sur Internet: Quels effets sur le box office?, Recherche et Applications en Marketing, 22, 3, 45–64.
30.
LevineL.W. (1988), Highbrow/Lowbrow. The emergence of cultural hierarchy in America, Cambridge: Mass. Harvard University Press.
31.
LyotardJ.F. (1979), La condition postmoderne, Paris, Les Éditions de Minuit.
32.
PetersonR.A. (2004), Le passage à des goûts omnivores: Notions, faits et perspectives, Sociologie et sociétés, 36, 1, 145–164.
33.
PetersonR.A.KernR.M. (1996), Changing highbrow taste: From snob to omnivore, American Sociological Review, 61, 5, 900–907.
34.
PluckerJ.A.HoldenJ.NeustadterD. (2008), The criterion problem and creativity in film: Psychometric characteristics of various measures, Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity, and the Arts, 2, 4, 190–196.
35.
PluckerJ.A.KaufmanJ.C.TempleJ.S.QianM. (2009), Do experts and novices evaluate movies the same way?, Psychology and Marketing, 26, 5, 470–478.
36.
RegevM. (1994), Producing artistic value: The case of rock music, The Sociological Quarterly, 35, 1, 85–102.
37.
ShrumW. (1996), Fringe and fortune: The role of critics in high and popular art, Princeton, NJ, Princeton University Press.
38.
UrfilanoP. (1989), Les politiques culturelles: Mécénat caché et académie invisible, LAnnée Sociologique, 39, 81–109.
39.
WijnbergN.M.GemserG. (2000), Adding value to innovation: Impressionism and the transformation of the selection system in visual arts, Organization Science, 11, 3, 323–329.
40.
WoodwardI.EmmisonM. (2001), From aesthetic principles to collective sentiments: The logics of everyday judgments of taste, Poetics, 29, 6, 295–316.
41.
ZenattiA. (1994), Goût musical, émotion esthétique, in ZenattiA. (coord.), Psychologie de la musique, Paris, PUF, 177–204.
