Synopsis Television its viewers and the ways it functions in society, are so multifarious that no tightly focused theoretical perspective can provide us with adequate insight. The theoretical and methodological roots of this book lie in that loosely delineated area known as "cultural studies" which derives from particular inflections of Marxism, semiotics post-structuralism, and ethnography. This area encompasses both textually inflected an socially inflected theories of culture and requires theoretical analytical and empirical approaches to rub together in a mutually critical and productive relationship. The book will focus on the problem of how the textuality of television is made meaningful and pleasurable by its variously situated viewers though it will also consider the relationship between this cultural dimension and television's status as a commodity in a capitalist economy.