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This textbook is designed to introduce students to the role of television in contemporary society. It explores the structure of the television text, the way in which the text is produced and the way it is consumed. The first section deals with the analysis of television programmes as texts. It covers, for example, the issues of realism, narrative, genre and ideology, the domestication of television programming, and the nature of soap operas and news. The section on the production of television deals firstly with the structure of the industry as a whole - the ways in which television is financed and distributed, the globalization of television and media imperialism - and the political economy of television. This is followed by a consideration of the internal workings of television organizations, including the role of the producer, the functioning of the production team, the television personality and producer's perceptions of the audience. The final section investigates theories of the television audience, and combines qualitative and quantitative studies. There is discussion on the history of audience research, methods of measuring the audience, the domestic context of viewing and television talk. This should be a suitable textbook for students of media studies, cultural studies and the sociology of culture.