This course demonstrates the centrality and significance of television to contemporary culture. An introduction to the theoretical and methodological traditions of television studies, it explores the historical development and distinctive aesthetic style of television; examines television’s role in the production of individual, national and global identities; and interrogates television’s negotiation of social meanings in the context of everyday life practice. These three broad themes will be developed through a series of particular studies including television and melodrama; the domestic context of television; audience reception and negotiation; fandom and celebrity; television and the regulation of childhood; television and commodity culture and tabloid television.