ABSTRACT
As with so many pieces of research, the Family Television project not only raised more questions than it answered, but also failed to pursue effectively all the possible dimensions of analysis of its own data. Thus, in the early stages, I attempted to outline a new conceptual model for the understanding of television viewing in the domestic context, but in the later analysis I was unable to operationalize effectively all the theoretical consequences of this model. In particular, I am aware that, having earlier argued for the importance of taking the family as the unit of consumption of television (rather than the individual in isolation), there is a tendency in the interviews to slide back towards a kind of parallel analysis of ‘gendered individuals’ rather than conducting a fully fledged analysis of the dynamics of the family unit.
