Media Audiences Television, Meaning and Emotion

by Gorton, Kristyn

• ISBN13: 9780748624188
• ISBN10: 074862418X
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2009-09-08
• Publisher: Edinburgh University Press

Summary

This book provides a comprehensive introduction to the study of media audiences as well as new research on the emotional engagement viewers have with television texts. It offers readers:*a detailed introduction to the history of audience research and an overview of the various competing theories on audience*a discussion of current debates within television audience research*an examination of the concept of emotion in relation to different aspects of audience research, such as feminist approaches, issues related to genre, and aesthetics*a small-scale research project on television and emotion*workshop exercises, film and television references, internet resources and additional materials to accompany lectures and seminars.The book is designed to be used as a primary text on courses within media and communication studies and is ideal for a module focusing on television and audience research in particular. Although primarily aimed at an undergraduate reader, the original research on audience and emotion will also be of interest to postgraduate students and researchers in the field.

Author Biography

Kristyn Gorton is Lecturer in the Department of Theatre, Film and Television at the University of York.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements	p. vi
Preface: emotion, engagements and orientation	p. viii
Introduction: why study television?	p. 1
Theoretical background
'Desperately Seeking the Audience': models of audience reception	p. 11
Personal Meanings, Fandom and Sitting Too Close to the Television	p. 30
Global Meanings and Trans-cultural Understandings of Dallas	p. 45
Theorising Emotion and Affect: feminist engagements	p. 55
Theorising Emotion in Film and Television	p. 72
Case studies
A Sentimental Journey: writing emotion in television	p. 89
'There's No Place Like Home': emotional exposure, excess and empathy on TV	p. 100
Emotional Rescue: The Sopranos (HBO 1999-2007), ER (NBC 1994-) and State of Play (BBC1 2003)	p. 115
Feminising Television: the Mother Role in Six Feet Under (HBO 2001-6) and Brothers & Sisters (ABC 2006-)	p. 128
Researching Emotion in Television: a small-scale case study of emotion in the UK/Irish soap industry	p. 142
Bibliography	p. 156
Index	p. 173
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