In this comprehensive textbook, now updated for its third edition, Jonathan Bignell provides students with a framework for understanding the key concepts and main approaches to Television Studies, including audience research, television history and broadcasting policy, and the analytical study of individual programmes.

Features include:

• a glossary of key terms
• key terms defined in margins
• suggestions for further reading
• activities/assignments for use in class

New and updated case studies feature:

• 'Every Home Needs a Harvey' ad
• approaches to news reporting
• television scheduling
• CSI Crime Scene Investigation
• animated cartoon series

Individual chapters address: studying television, television histories, television cultures, television texts and narratives, television genres and formats, television production, television and quality, television realities, television you can't see, television audiences, beyond television.