A comprehensive introduction for students to an integral topic on all communication and media studies courses. Acknowledgements, Some Television and Some Topics and Some Terminology, Realism, Realism and Ideology, Subjectivity and Address, Active Audiences, Activated Texts, Intertextuality, Narrative, Character Reading, Gendered Television: Femininity, Gendered Television: Masculinity, Pleasure and Play, Carnival and Style, Quizzical Pleasures, New Readings and News Readers, Conclusion: The Popular Economy, References, Name and Subject Index.