A corruscating attack on television - and on the 'collaboration' between intellectuals and the media which, Bourdieu argues, is leading to new and more invidious forms of dumbing down.

Bourdieu examines the way in which apparently serious TV debate gives way to soundbite, as a series of talking 'experts' go through the motions of comment and consideration in increasingly self-referential circles.

The result: banal and worthless drivel, shaped almost entirely by the imperatives of television ratings wars rather than any consideration of the truth. Television, Bourdieu claims, has now had a profound and largely detrimental effect not just on journalism, but on the formerly very separate worlds of art, literature, philosophy, politics, justice and even science - all of which are in danger of being forced to submit to what he describes as the 'commercial plebiscite' of audience ratings.