"...And There Was Television"

This book postulates that television is the central apparatus of consumer society and its success is measured not in terms of whether we enjoy programmes, but how much we spend as a result of watching them.

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Television is blamed for an assortment of evils, including violence, shortened attention spans, the decline of literacy and political indoctrination. This study weighs up the theories and the evidence. The author argues that much of the panic is without foundation, and that the single most important danger posed by TV is that it encourages us to spend too much. Cashmore agrees with many writers that television is an elemental force in today's culture, but he presents a completely different account of how and why this has come about. He postulates that television is the central apparatus of consumer society and its success is measured not in terms of whether we enjoy programmes, but how much we spend as a result of watching them.