Communication Practices of the Social Classes in Contemporary Greece

The analysis we present is based on quantitative research. It attempts to demonstrate the preferences and practices of social classes in Greece in terms of consumption (mainly) and production (thanks to the new media) of media content. Class division is an analytical way of categorizing individuals, families, or other groups. On the other hand, the communicational and—in a more general perspective—the cultural practices of people belonging to different social classes are not necessarily identical to the established class identity of the cultural products they consume or produce. The ruling class—to which the media mostly belong both as enterprises and ideological apparatuses—enjoys the upper hand in the struggle over meanings. Some 1145 individuals participated in our research and we found that that the working class prefers new media information, while the differentiation of media consumption between the working and the middle class tends to be smaller compared to the corresponding between the middle and the upper class.