Summary
Contents
Subject index
`Most cultural analysis focuses on the spectacular and the unusual. Frances Bonner has done us a great service by insisting on - and demonstrating - the importance of everyday TV. Ordinary Television breaks genuinely new ground' - Toby Miller, New York University In this book, Frances Bonner provides a distinctive angle on a key area of research and teaching across media and cultural studies - the content of television and the relations between television genres and audiences. Hitherto most books on television have focused on drama, or news and current affairs. In other words, they tend to ignore 'ordinary' television - lifestyle programmes and 'reality TV', just the sort of programmes which increasing dominate the schedules. In Ordinary Television, Frances Bonner makes a distinctive argument for regarding these disparate shows as a whole. By examining a substantial range of these programmes, Frances Bonner uncovers their shared characteristics, especially through a consideration of the dominant and disguised discources which pervade them. In addition, the comparative nature of her study enables the author to launch a powerful critique of conventional theories in relation to the globalization of television. This book will be invaluable reading for anyone interested in television and the media in general.
Pervasive Discourses
Pervasive Discourses
When one looks across the considerable range of programmes that constitute ordinary television, there is not the discursive diversity that such an ostensibly disparate body of work might be imagined as generating. A relatively small number of discourses and discursive positions recur. The main variation is age-based, with those types, like reality game shows in particular, that appeal to younger viewers having different positions from the more traditional programmes like game shows and lifestyle ones. Quite a small group of preoccupations cover the entire range, though few programmes draw on the full set. Consumption, family, health, sexuality and leisure are at the core. They are both articulated to one another and tightly articulated to the self and thus amenable to the overarching ...
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