Amazon.com Product Description (ISBN 0415085098, Paperback)

Taking inspiration from Richard Hoggarts classic study The Uses of Literacy, John Hartley's new book is a lucid defence of the place of television in our lives, and of the usefulness of television studies. Hartley re-conceptualizes television as a transmodern medium, capable of reuniting government, education and media, and of creating a new kind of cultural teaching which facilitates communication across social and geographical boundaries. He provides a historical framework for the development of both television and television studies, his focus ranging from an analysis of the early documentary, to the much-overlooked cultural impact of the refrigerator.