Television: Technology and Cultural Form

by Raymond Williams

Overview

First published in 1974, this classic study of TV was ahead of its time, introducing ideas about the medium that we now take for granted

Raymond Williams is often described as the founder of cultural studies, and this book is regarded by many as the founding text of TV studies

In the current age of reality TV, Williams' insights into the danger of TV inundating our lives and an increasingly relentless barrage of images clogging up the airwaves seem remarkably prescient

With a new introduction by Roger Silverstone, Professor of Media and Communications at the LSE

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781134379361
Publisher:	Taylor & Francis
Publication date:	06/01/2004
Series:	Routledge Classics
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	192
File size:	1 MB

About the Author

Raymond Williams (1921-1988). British cultural thinker and sociologist Raymond Williams is best known for pioneering the study of popular culture and the media, as well as for being one of the founding fathers of the British cultural studies group.

Table of Contents

Chapter 1 The Technology and the Society, Raymond Williams, Ederyn Williams, Roger Silverstone; Chapter 2 Institutions of the Technology, Raymond Williams, Ederyn Williams, Roger Silverstone; Chapter 3 The Forms of Television, Raymond Williams, Ederyn Williams, Roger Silverstone; Chapter 4 Programming: Distribution and Flow, Raymond Williams, Ederyn Williams, Roger Silverstone; Chapter 5 Effects of the Technology and its Uses, Raymond Williams, Ederyn Williams, Roger Silverstone; Chapter 6 Alternative Technology, Alternative Uses?, Raymond Williams, Ederyn Williams, Roger Silverstone;

Editorial Reviews

'Television: Technology and Cultural Form is a powerful and original book which marked the beginning of a new breed of British accounts of television. Instead of focusing solely on the content of television programs, it examined the shaping effect of television's technological structures upon its characteristic forms.' - Graeme Turner, Centre for Critical and Cultural Studies, University of Queensland, Australia

'Television: Technology and Cultural Form changed the way people understand TV. For the first time, a sophisticated critic and historian looked at the all medium's aspects—as a domestic technology, an object of public policy, a fetish of capital, a series of texts, and a creator of audiences... It was the first classic of TV studies.' - Toby Miller, New York University

'This book is a classic because it inaugurated ways of thinking about a new technology - television - as part of everyday material culture which are even more pertinent to us now as we enter the digital age.' - Charlotte Brunsdon, University of Warwick, UK

'A critical, insightful, iconoclastic and humane reading of television's first half century.' - Roger Silverstone, London School of Economics

From the Publisher