Television Culture

By John Fiske and John Fiske

Book Overview

This revised edition of a now classic text includes a new introduction by Henry Jenkins, explaining 'Why Fiske Still Matters' for today's students, followed by a discussion between former Fiske students Ron Becker, Aniko Bodroghkozy, Steve Classen, Elana Levine, Jason Mittell, Greg Smith and Pam Wilson on 'John Fiske and Television Culture'. Both underline the continuing relevance of this foundational text in the study of contemporary media and popular culture.

Television is unique in its ability to produce so much pleasure and so many meanings for such a wide variety of people. In this book, John Fiske looks at television's role as an agent of popular culture, and goes on to consider the relationship between this cultural dimension and television's status as a commodity of the cultural industries that are deeply inscribed with capitalism. He makes use of detailed textual analysis and audience studies to show how television is absorbed into social experience, and thus made into popular culture. Audiences, Fiske argues, are productive, discriminating, and televisually literate.

Television Culture provides a comprehensive introduction for students to an integral topic on all communication and media studies courses.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0415596475
• ISBN13: 9780415596473
• Release Date: September 2010
• Publisher: Routledge
• Length: 424 Pages
• Weight: 1.08 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 5.5" x 8.5"

Customer Reviews

Enlightening

John Fiske takes us into the television world that we take for granted. He analyzes such aspects as Professional Wrestling, Dallas, daytime soap operas, M.A.S.H., the A-team, Miami Vice, Magnum p.i. and Saturday Night Live. He incorporates magazines (Playboy, Vogue), movies (Rambo, Mad Max) and famous celebrities (Madonna). He even looks into game shows such as the Family Feud, and The New Price is Right. He takes a look into the white culture of American media in order to examine televisions influence in popular culture. He explores the questions of why mass population consumes this form of cultural industry. He answers such questions as, who watches what programs and why? How does televisions become so aborted into social lives? Fiske explores the cultural process in which gives these show their meanings. It is an interesting and enlightening insight. It is useful when exploring other sociological theories relating to mass media and popular culture.