ABSTRACT
The media are not so much ‘things’ as places which most of us inhabit, which weave in and out of our lives. Their constant messages and pleasures seem to flow around and through us, and they immerse most of our waking lives. So there’s usually little problem with immediate understanding or enjoyment of them. Yet precisely because of their taken-for-grantedness, many people have seen it as important, and enjoyable, to try to analyse the roles and consequences of this part of everyday lives. And because most of us have learnt their ‘codes’ so thoroughly, they can be hard to stand back from, to try to ‘unpick’.
