Television Form and Public Address

This book is a major critical study of the connections between the 'public' character of television and the various ways it works as communication. John Corner asks fundamental questions about the nature of what appears on the screen and how it variously engages, informs and entertains viewers. After setting out some of the distinctive features of the medium, illustrated by examples, the question of the likely and possible social and political consequences of these features is directly addressed. Chapters on the specific but changing forms of news, documentary and advertising provide a vivid and detailed analysis of some of television's most controversial ways of addressing the viewer as citizen and consumer.