Television and New Media Audiences

Why is talk about television forbidden at some schools? Why does a mother feel guilty about watching Star Trek in front of her four-year-old child? Why would retired men turn to daytime soap operas for entertainment? Through case studies, Ellen Seiter explains what audience research tells us about gender, class, and the significance of television and computers at home and in the workplace.
Why is talk about television forbidden at a Montessori school? Why does a mother feel guilty about watching "Star Trek" in front of her four-year-old child? Why would retired men turn to daytime soap operas for entertainment? Cliches about television mask the complexity of our relationship to media technologies. Through case studies, the author explains what audience research tells us about the uses of technologies in the domestic sphere and the classroom, the relationship between gender and genre, and the varied interpretation of media technologies and media forms. "Media Audiences: The Unwritten Ethnography" reviews research on television audiences and recommends the use of ethnographic, longitudinal methods for the study of media consumption and computer use at home as well as in the workplace.