Johan Lindell
Senior Lecturer/Associate Professor at Department of Informatics and Media
- Telephone:
- +46 18 471 10 35
- E-mail:
- johan.lindell@im.uu.se
- Visiting address:
- Ekonomikum (plan 3)
Kyrkogårdsgatan 10 - Postal address:
- Box 513
751 20 UPPSALA
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Short presentation
Johan Lindell is an Associate Professor of Media and Communication Studies. Lindell specializes in field theory and the works of French sociologist Pierre Bourdieu. He has published his research in a wide range of international journals including European Journal of Communication, Cultural Sociology, Communication Theory, Poetics, New Media & Society and Digital Journalism. Lindell is the programme coordinator of the international master's programme Digital Media & Society (DIMS).
Keywords
- inequality
- social inequality
- consumption
- class
- news
- globalization
- cultural sociology
- mediatization
- journalism
- mass media
Biography
Johan Lindell (PhD, 2014, Karlstad University) is an Associate Professor of Media and Communication Studies.
Research
Johan Lindell's research area is broad and comprises media use, fields of cultural production, lifestyles and social stratification, mediatization, and the Nordic media system. Lindell specializes in field theory and the works of French sociologist Pierre Bourdieu – a framework which he has applied to understand cultural production in the journalistic field, the field of television production, and the scientific field, and to study media and news consumption and lifestyles in terms of social reproduction and inequality.
Lindell has published his research in a wide range of international journals including European Journal of Communication, Communication Theory, Poetics, New Media & Society, European Journal of Cultural Studies, Information, Communication & Society, Cultural Sociology, Media, Culture & Society, Critical Studies in Media Communication, Social Media + Society and Digital Journalism. His most recent book is Bourdieusian Media Studies (Routledge, 2024).
Lindell's research has been awarded "Top Paper" by the Philosophy, Theory and Critique-division (2019 and 2022) and by the Journalism Studies-division (2021) of the International Communication Association. He has also received the Wolfgang Donsbach outstanding article of the year-award (2018).

Publications
Selection of publications
Routledge, 2024
The future of the Nordic media model: A digital media welfare state?
Nordicom, 2024
Normative foundations of media welfare: Perspectives from the Nordic countries
Part of Media Culture and Society, p. 305-322, 2023
- DOI for Normative foundations of media welfare: Perspectives from the Nordic countries
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Kommunikation: En introduktion
Studentlitteratur AB, 2023
Symbolic violence and the social space: Self-imposing the mark of disgrace?
Part of Cultural Sociology, p. 379-401, 2022
- DOI for Symbolic violence and the social space: Self-imposing the mark of disgrace?
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I'm here!: Conspicuous geomedia practices and the reproduction of social positions on social media
Part of Information, Communication and Society, p. 2063-2082, 2022
- DOI for I'm here!: Conspicuous geomedia practices and the reproduction of social positions on social media
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The field of television production: Genesis, structure and positiontakings
Part of Poetics, p. 101432, 2020
Distinction recapped: Digital news repertoires in the class structure
Part of New Media and Society, p. 3029-3049, 2018
Part of Social Media + Society, p. 1-11, 2017
Recent publications
Part of Nordicom Review, p. 1-24, 2025
- DOI for Smartphone morality: A mixed-method study of how young adults judge their own and other people’s digital media reliance
- Download full text (pdf) of Smartphone morality: A mixed-method study of how young adults judge their own and other people’s digital media reliance
Part of Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media, p. 445-464, 2024
- DOI for Does it Make a Difference?: Television’s Misrepresentation of the Working-Class as Cultivation Effects
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Part of Digital Journalism, p. 894-913, 2024
- DOI for Digitalizing the journalistic field: Journalists' views on changes in journalistic autonomy, capital and habitus
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Media practice and class-making: The anticipation of stigma and the cultural middle-class habitus
Part of Media Culture and Society, p. 21-37, 2024
- DOI for Media practice and class-making: The anticipation of stigma and the cultural middle-class habitus
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Digital Journalism and “Radical Audience Studies”: Toward a cultural sociology of news use
Part of The Routledge Companion to Digital Journalism Studies, p. 93-101, Routledge, 2024
All publications
Articles in journal
Part of Nordicom Review, p. 1-24, 2025
- DOI for Smartphone morality: A mixed-method study of how young adults judge their own and other people’s digital media reliance
- Download full text (pdf) of Smartphone morality: A mixed-method study of how young adults judge their own and other people’s digital media reliance
Part of Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media, p. 445-464, 2024
- DOI for Does it Make a Difference?: Television’s Misrepresentation of the Working-Class as Cultivation Effects
- Download full text (pdf) of Does it Make a Difference?: Television’s Misrepresentation of the Working-Class as Cultivation Effects
Part of Digital Journalism, p. 894-913, 2024
- DOI for Digitalizing the journalistic field: Journalists' views on changes in journalistic autonomy, capital and habitus
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Media practice and class-making: The anticipation of stigma and the cultural middle-class habitus
Part of Media Culture and Society, p. 21-37, 2024
- DOI for Media practice and class-making: The anticipation of stigma and the cultural middle-class habitus
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Part of Nordicom Review, p. 238-256, 2024
- DOI for The shadowy realm of news avoidance: Exploring public service news avoidance as negative social action
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Normative foundations of media welfare: Perspectives from the Nordic countries
Part of Media Culture and Society, p. 305-322, 2023
- DOI for Normative foundations of media welfare: Perspectives from the Nordic countries
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Part of The International Journal of Cultural Policy, p. 431-448, 2023
- DOI for Media policy attitudes and political attitudes: the politization of media policy and the support for the 'media welfare state'
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Disconnecting from digital news: News avoidance and the ignored role of social class
Part of Journalism - Theory, Practice & Criticism, p. 1980-1997, 2023
- DOI for Disconnecting from digital news: News avoidance and the ignored role of social class
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The media welfare state: A citizen perspective
Part of European Journal of Communication, p. 330-349, 2022
- DOI for The media welfare state: A citizen perspective
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Part of Nordicom Review, p. 190-213, 2022
- DOI for Publishing, sharing, and spreading online news: A case study of gatekeeping logics in the platform era
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Symbolic violence and the social space: Self-imposing the mark of disgrace?
Part of Cultural Sociology, p. 379-401, 2022
- DOI for Symbolic violence and the social space: Self-imposing the mark of disgrace?
- Download full text (pdf) of Symbolic violence and the social space: Self-imposing the mark of disgrace?
I'm here!: Conspicuous geomedia practices and the reproduction of social positions on social media
Part of Information, Communication and Society, p. 2063-2082, 2022
- DOI for I'm here!: Conspicuous geomedia practices and the reproduction of social positions on social media
- Download full text (pdf) of I'm here!: Conspicuous geomedia practices and the reproduction of social positions on social media
Introduction: Class in/and the media: On the importance of class in media and communication studies
Part of Nordicom Review, p. 1-19, 2021
- DOI for Introduction: Class in/and the media: On the importance of class in media and communication studies
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A Neoliberal Media Welfare State?: The Swedish Media System in Transformation
Part of Javnost - The Public, p. 375-390, 2021
- DOI for A Neoliberal Media Welfare State?: The Swedish Media System in Transformation
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Something ‘Old’, Something‘New’?: The UK Space ofPolitical Attitudes After the Brexit Referendum
Part of Sociological Research Online, p. 505-524, 2021
- DOI for Something ‘Old’, Something‘New’?: The UK Space ofPolitical Attitudes After the Brexit Referendum
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Mediatization from within: A plea for emic approaches to media-related social change
Part of Communication Theory, p. 956-977, 2021
Media and basic desires: An approach to measuring the mediatization of daily human life
Part of Communications, p. 275-296, 2021
- DOI for Media and basic desires: An approach to measuring the mediatization of daily human life
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The field of television production: Genesis, structure and positiontakings
Part of Poetics, p. 101432, 2020
Battle of the Classes: News Consumption Inequalities and Symbolic Boundary Work
Part of Critical Studies in Media Communication, p. 480-496, 2020
- DOI for Battle of the Classes: News Consumption Inequalities and Symbolic Boundary Work
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Part of Nordicom Review, p. 109-125, 2020
- DOI for Establishment versus Newcomers, Critical versus Administrative?: Sketching the structure of the Swedish field of media and communication studies
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Young people, class and the news: Distinction, socialization and moral sentiments
Part of Journalism Studies, p. 2042-2061, 2018
Distinction recapped: Digital news repertoires in the class structure
Part of New Media and Society, p. 3029-3049, 2018
Media Studies for a Mediatized World: Rethinking Media and Social Space
Part of Meddelelser om konservering, p. 1-4, 2018
Distinctions in the media welfare state: audience fragmentation in post-egalitarian Sweden
Part of Media Culture and Society, p. 639-655, 2018
The Space of Journalistic Work: A Theoretical Model
Part of Communication Theory, p. 403-423, 2018
A matter of cultural distinction: News consumption in the online media landscape
Part of European Journal of Communication, p. 116-130, 2017
Part of Social Media + Society, p. 1-11, 2017
Part of Nordicom Review, p. 51-64, 2017
Dimensions of journalistic workplace autonomy: A five-nation comparison
Part of Javnost - The Public, p. 307-326, 2016
The elastic mobility of business elites: Negotiating the 'home' and 'away' continuum
Part of European Journal of Cultural Studies, p. 435-449, 2016
Cosmopolitan Journalists?: Global Journalism in the Work and Visions of Journalists
Part of Journalism Studies, p. 860-870, 2016
Communication as spatial production: Expanding the research agenda of communication geography
Part of Space and Culture, p. 56-66, 2016
Social reproduktion i Värmland: Klass, utbildning och livsstil
Part of Sociologisk forskning, p. 289-306, 2016
Part of Journalism Studies, p. 79-96, 2015
Bourdieusian Media Studies: Returning Social Theory to Old and New Media
Part of Distinktion, p. 362-377, 2015
Mediapolis, Where art Thou?: Mediated Cosmopolitanism in Three Media Systems between 2002 and 2010
Part of International Communication Gazette, p. 189-207, 2015
Part of Sociological Research Online, 2014
Elysium: Det ultimata grindsamhället
Part of Värmlands Folkblad, 2013
Medier och Kosmopolitism: Varthän?
Part of Nordicom Information, 2012
Part of Observatorio (OBS*), p. 47-62, 2012
Medierad kosmopolitism: en empirisk inblick
Part of Nordicom Information, p. 3-15, 2011
Books
Routledge, 2024
Smaken för nyheter: Klasskillnader i det digitala medielandskapet
Nordicom, 2018
Chapters in book
Digital Journalism and “Radical Audience Studies”: Toward a cultural sociology of news use
Part of The Routledge Companion to Digital Journalism Studies, p. 93-101, Routledge, 2024
Pierre Bourdieu (1979) Distinction
Part of Classics in media theory, p. 242-255, Routledge, 2024
What’s next for the media welfare state?
Part of The future of the Nordic media model, p. 319-332, Nordicom, 2024
Introduction: The future of the digital media welfare state
Part of The future of the Nordic media model, p. 7-22, Nordicom, 2024
Foreword: Class Cultures and the Media in Greece
Part of Class, Culture, and the Media in Greece, Volume 1, p. 1-5, Palgrave Macmillan, 2024
Den socialpsykologiska traditionen: Kommunikation som påverkansprocess
Part of Kommunikation, p. 107-128, Studentlitteratur AB, 2023
Kommunikationsteoretiska traditioner: Sju perspektiv på kommunikation
Part of Kommunikation, p. 15-36, Studentlitteratur AB, 2023
Vad tycker medborgarna om public service?
Part of Public service, p. 92-111, Nordicom, 2022
Disconnection as distinction: A Bourdieusian study of where people withdraw from digital media
Part of Disentangling, p. 61-90, Oxford University Press, 2021
Pierre Bourdieu: La Distinction (1979)
Part of Medievetenskapens idétraditioner, p. 243-259, Studentlitteratur AB, 2020
Internationella nyheter i svenska medier
Part of Nyheter – allt mer en tolkningsfråga, p. 126-139, Institutet för mediestudier, 2019
Cosmopolitan journalists?: Global journalism in the work and visions of journalists
Part of The Future of Journalism, Routledge, 2018
Part of Geomedia Studies, Routledge, 2018
The taste for news: Class shaping young people's news use in Sweden
Part of Youth and News in a Digital Media Environment, p. 133-140, Nordicom, 2018
Världsmedborgare eller bara utlandsboende?: Kosmopolitism som ett uttryck för supermobilitet
Part of Svenska utlandsröster, p. 79-93, SOM-institutet, 2016
Filterbubblan är klassifierad: Nyheter via internet och det kulturella kapitalet
Part of Värmländska utmaningar, p. 499-512, Karlstad University Press, 2016
Distinktioner i medievälfärdsstaten
Part of Ekvilibrium, p. 315-327, SOM-institutet, 2016
Part of Den postpolitiska staden, p. 104-125, Recito förlag, 2016
News consumption in the transmedia age: Amalgamations, orientations and geo-social structuration
Part of The Places and Spaces of News Consumption, Routledge, 2016
Social reproduktion i Värmland
Part of Värmländska utmaningar, p. 331-342, Karlstad University Press, 2016
Nyhetsvärdering, omvärldsorientering och regional identitet
Part of Värmländska landskap, p. 457-472, Karlstad University Press, 2012
Collections (editor)
The future of the Nordic media model: A digital media welfare state?
Nordicom, 2024
Kommunikation: En introduktion
Studentlitteratur AB, 2023
Geomedia Studies: Spaces and Mobilities in Mediatized Worlds
Routledge, 2018
Conference papers
The craft of Bourdieusian media studies: Towards a relational sociology of digital media
2024
Rethinking media reliance in times of deep mediatization
2024
Into the Shadowy Realm of News Avoidance: Exploring News Avoidance as Negative Social Action
2024
2023
2023
Media practice and class-making: The anticipation of stigma and the cultural middle-class habitus
2023
Digital Journalism and “Radical Audience Studies”: Toward a Cultural Sociology of News Use
2023
Disconnecting from digital news: News avoidance and the ignored role of social class
2022
Media use, symbolic violence and the social space: Self-imposing the mark of disgrace?
2022
Mapping media life: Mediatization as conceptual mediator in a hyper-fragmented academic field
Part of ECREA, 2022
Media welfare as a normative concept
2022
2022
Making ”good use” of mobile media: Surveying smartphone practices as social and moral space
Part of ECREA, 2022
The media welfare state: A citizen perspective
2021
Digitalizing the journalistic field: Rethinking autonomy, capital and habitus
2021
An interregnum in Scandinavian Media Policy?: Sweden as a Post-Media Welfare State
2021
A neo-liberal media welfare state?: The Swedish media system in transformation
2021
Where do people withdraw from digital media?: A Bourdieusian study of the taste for disconnection
2021
I’m here!: Conspicuous geomedia practices and the reproduction of social positions on social media
2021
Mediatization as a state of mind?: Toward an emic perspective of the mediatization of everyday life.
2020
Battle of the classes: News consumption inequalities and symbolic boundary work
2020
Positions, capitals and values in the Swedish field of television production
2019
Media and Basic Desires: An Approach to Measuring the Mediatization of Daily Life
2019
Class and media repertoires in Sweden
2018
2018
News Duds and Hits: Sharing on Facebook. The distribution of news in an era of layered gatekeeping
2018
Young people, class and the news: Distinction, socialization and moral sentiments
2017
Distinctions in the world of news: A Bourdieusian approach to audience fragmentation
2017
Distinctions in the media welfare state: A Bourdieusian take on audience fragmentation
2017
Mapping the space of journalistic labor in the new media environment: a model
Part of Communicating with Power, 2016
2016
2016
Autonomy from the inside: Journalists’ perceptions of workplace autonomy in five European countries
2015
On the Reluctant Cosmopolitanism of Kinetic Élites
Part of 12th Conference of the European Sociological Association, August 25-28, 2015, Prague, 2015
Asocial Media Studies: Bourdieu as Remedy
2015
Part of Book of Abstracts, p. 60-60, 2015
Classified News Consumption: A Bourdieusian Take on Fragmented News Publics
2015
Cosmopolitan Journalists?: Journalist professional values across a local-global continuum
2015
OMNIBUS NEWS: Engagement or bussed?
2015
Elastic mobility: Negotiating the ’home’ and ’away’ continuum
2015
2014
Searching for Mediapolis: Mediated Cosmopolitanism in Three Media Systems Between 2002-2010
2014
(Mediated) cosmopolitanism as symbolic violence
2014
2014
(Mediated) cosmopolitanism as symbolic violence
2014
2013
The City as Spectacle: A Debordian Critique of the City as Commodity and Brand
2013
- Download full text 1 (pdf) of The City as Spectacle: A Debordian Critique of the City as Commodity and Brand
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2012
The Cosmopolitan Ethos: An Empirical Inquiry into the Question of a 'Mediated Cosmopolitanism'
2011
2011
Media, Power & Cosmopolitanism: Rethinking Cosmopolitanism in a Digital Age
Part of Transcultural Communication, 2010
Monograph doctoral thesis
Other
Book review: Digital Capital: A Bourdieusian Perspective on the Digital Divide
Part of European Journal of Communication, p. 423-425, 2020
Book review: Media and Cosmopolitanism
Part of Communications, p. 263-265, 2015
Book review: Digitala distinktioner: Klass och kontinuitet i unga mäns vardagliga mediepraktiker
Part of Nordicom Information, p. 127-129, 2015