Review by Choice Review
Seiter (Univ. of California, San Diego) argues that ethnography is the only valid methodology for the study of TV and Internet users. The author finds fault with most existing methods and research designs (quantitative testing, measuring mass appeal, uses and gratifications studies, textual coding and decoding), believing they fail to deal with the complexities of audience's response to television as part of its cultural, gender, and class status. Observing that most academic research places the researcher in an elite status, Seiter encourages an anthropology-based method similar to that developed by Margaret Mead in the 1920s and '30s. She argues that researchers must be part of the audience and share its daily activities in order to make meaningful interpretations of people's TV viewing. The middle section of the book reports her ethnographic studies (more accurately case studies) of four lay preschool audiences and five fundamentalist Christian preschool audiences, and offers some general observations about Internet audiences. Seiter explains these audiences' different views of the dangers/benefits of TV (particularly as they relate to children) using sociological concepts of cultural capital, hierarchical positioning, and economic and cultural appropriation. Since the author's sympathies and preferences predetermine most of her conclusions, this book is most appropriate for savvy graduate students, researchers, and faculty. R. Cathcart CUNY Queens College
Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
Review by Choice Review
