ALL HITS ARE FLUKES - INSTITUTIONALIZED DECISION-MAKING AND THE RHETORIC OF NETWORK PRIME-TIME PROGRAM-DEVELOPMENT

Drawing upon institutionalist theory this article analyzes how the int roduction of new cultural objects produced for a mass audience is mana ged through an organized discourse. Data come from announcements of pr ime-time television series in development for the 1998-92 season by th e four U.S. television networks. Maximum-likelihood logit analyses sup port the conclusion that network programmers working in a highly insti tutionalized context use reputation, imitation, and genre as rhetorica l strategies to rationalize and legitimize their actions. This study c ontributes to institutionalist theory and the sociology of culture by explaining the content and consequences of business discourse in a cul ture industry.