Satellite Television in Everyday Life

This is a discussion of qualitative research on the domestic consumption of satellite TV. The resulting portraits reveal complex patterns of authority and resistance in families, disputes and anxieties over the siting of dishes, and varied identifications with broadcasting's image spaces.

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What are the meanings of satellite television for its audiences? How is the technology used and made sense of in different households and neighbourhood contexts? What are the consequences of its arrival for constructions of personal and collective identity? This book looks for answers to these and other questions in a discussion of qualitative research on the domestic consumption of satellite TV. The resulting portraits reveal complex patterns of authority and resistance in families, disputes and anxieties over the siting of dishes, and varied identifications with broadcasting's image spaces. The book situates this empirical study within a broader theoretical framework - reviewing contemporary debates about media reception, local culture and imagined community in conditions of late modernity. It also engages with issues of method, advocating a critical ethnographic perspective on everyday life.