Television: Technology and Cultural Form

Description

Television: Technology and Cultural Form was first published in 1974, long before the dawn of multi-channel TV, or the reality and celebrity shows that now pack the schedules. Yet Williams' analysis of television's history, its institutions, programmes and practices, and its future prospects, remains remarkably prescient. Williams stresses the importance of technology in shaping the cultural form of television, while always resisting the determinism of McLuhan's dictum that 'the medium is the message'. If the medium really is the message, Williams asks, what is left for us to do or say? Williams argues that, on the contrary, we as viewers have the power to disturb, disrupt and to distract the otherwise cold logic of history and technology - not just because television is part of the fabric of our daily lives, but because new technologies continue to offer opportunities, momentarily outside the sway of transnational corporations or the grasp of media moguls, for new forms of self and political expression.

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.

"'The founding text of television studies. A true Classic: Always worth consulting for its style, scope, and insights.'."-Jostein Gripsrud "'This books 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 "'Williams understood that TV was the theatre of capitalism, the drama of modernity. He took both drama and capitalism seriously, and this book is the result -- a decisive moment in the formation of TV studies as a properly theorized field, and a permanently useful account of cultural form.'."-John Hartley, Centre for Critical and Cultural Studies, University of Queensland