Viewers Like You: How Public TV Failed the People (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9780231119436)

How "public" is public television if only a small percentage of the American people tune in on a regular basis? When public television addresses "viewers like you," just who are you? Despite the current of frustration with commercial television that runs through American life, most TV viewers bypass the redemptive "oasis of the wasteland" represented by PBS and turn to the sitcoms, soap operas, music videos, game shows, weekly dramas, and popular news programs produced by the culture industries. Viewers Like You? traces the history of public broadcasting in the United States, questions its priorities, and argues that public TV's tendency to reject popular culture has undermined its capacity to serve the people it claims to represent. Drawing from archival research and cultural theory, the book shows that public television's perception of what the public needs is constrained by unquestioned cultural assumptions rooted in the politics of class, gender, and race.

Author: Laurie Ouellette
ISBN-10: 0231119437
ISBN-13: 9780231119436
Publisher: Columbia University Press
Language: English
Published: 09/17/2002
Pages: 288
Format: Paperback
Weight: 0.92lbs
Size: 9.12h x 6.52w x 0.64d

Review Citation(s):
Booklist 09/15/2002 pg. 185
Library Journal 10/15/2002 pg. 81