Talking with Television
Women, Talk Shows, and Modern Self-Reflexivity
Talking back to TV--women viewers' participation with TV talk shows
Cloth – $110
978-0-252-03391-9
Paper – $28
978-0-252-07602-2
Publication Date
Paperback: 03/31/2009
About the Book
Television talk shows have fueled debates about television's faltering role as a medium for social interaction, but this book points out that many viewers don't just absorb the shows; they react to them and even talk back to their televisions. By observing and analyzing the daily viewing habits of a dozen women viewers, Helen Wood interprets these experiences as daily rituals of self-reflexivity, focusing on the performance of gender as a doubling of place in contemporary conditions of modernity. Directly challenging the fundamental assumption that new media forms are uniquely interactive, Talking with Television reveals that televisual styles, particularly talk-based TV, have always sought to encourage a participatory relationship with viewers at home.About the Author
Helen Wood is principal lecturer in media studies at De Montfort University in Leicester, England.Reviews
Blurbs
"A rare product: a theoretically informed empirical study, using data in sophisticated ways to produce far-reaching insights into the practice of television viewing and the construction of gendered subjectivity. A significant contribution to sociology, media and cultural studies, and gender studies."--Ann Gray, author of Research Practice for Cultural Studies: Ethnographic Methods and Lived Cultures
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