ABSTRACT
At this stage we are ready to revise some of the models of television’s function that were described in the last chapter. The internal psychological state of the individual is not the prime determinant in the communication of television messages. These are decoded according to individually learnt but culturally generated codes and conventions, which of course impose similar constraints of perception on the encoders of the messages. It seems, then, that television functions as a social ritual, overriding individual distinctions, in which our culture engages in order to communicate with its collective self (see Leach 1976, p. 45).
