ABSTRACT

The ways in which we watch television tell us much about our views of gender, the family and society. Bringing together the leading experts in the field of audience studies, this book investigates how viewers watch television, and what they think about the programmes they see. Originally published in 1989, the book is divided into two sections which discuss some of the theoretical issues at stake and then present case studies of a wide range of viewers: women office workers, Israeli watchers of Dallas, German families, the elderly, and American daytime soap fans. Contributors from Britain, the United States, Western Europe, Australia and Israel offer a wide range of perspectives, from feminism to post-modernism, and from semiotics to Marxism.

‘Together these essays constitute one of the best possible introductions to the leading edge of research into the phenomenon of television.’ Choice

chapter Chapter One|28 pages

Changing paradigms in audience studies

chapter Chapter Five|20 pages

Wanted: Audiences

On the politics of empirical audience studies

chapter Chapter Six|14 pages

Text and audience

chapter Chapter Eight|18 pages

Soap operas at work

chapter Chapter Ten|24 pages

Chapter ten Approaching the audience: The elderly

chapter Chapter Twelve|25 pages

“Don't treat us like we're so stupid and naive”:

Toward an ethnography of soap opera viewers