Ambient Television

Visual Culture and Public Space

Nonfiction, Entertainment, Performing Arts, Television, History & Criticism, Social & Cultural Studies, Social Science, Cultural Studies, Popular Culture
Cover of the book Ambient Television by Anna McCarthy, Duke University Press
View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart
Author: Anna McCarthy ISBN: 9780822383130
Publisher: Duke University Press Publication: March 16, 2001
Imprint: Duke University Press Books Language: English
Author: Anna McCarthy
ISBN: 9780822383130
Publisher: Duke University Press
Publication: March 16, 2001
Imprint: Duke University Press Books
Language: English

Although we tend to think of television primarily as a household fixture, TV monitors outside the home are widespread: in bars, laundromats, and stores; conveying flight arrival and departure times in airports; uniting crowds at sports events and allaying boredom in waiting rooms; and helping to pass the time in workplaces of all kinds. In Ambient Television Anna McCarthy explores the significance of this pervasive phenomenon, tracing the forms of conflict, commerce, and community that television generates outside the home.
Discussing the roles television has played in different institutions from 1945 to the present day, McCarthy draws on a wide array of sources. These include retail merchandising literature, TV industry trade journals, and journalistic discussions of public viewing, as well as the work of cultural geographers, architectural theorists, media scholars, and anthropologists. She also uses photography as a research tool, documenting the uses and meanings of television sets in the built environment, and focuses on such locations as the tavern and the department store to show how television is used to support very different ideas about gender, class, and consumption. Turning to contemporary examples, McCarthy discusses practices such as Turner Private Networks’ efforts to transform waiting room populations into advertising audiences and the use of point-of-sale video that influences brand visibility and consumer behavior. Finally, she inquires into the activist potential of out-of-home television through a discussion of the video practices of two contemporary artists in everyday public settings.
Scholars and students of cultural, visual, urban, American, film, and television studies will be interested in this thought-provoking, interdisciplinary book.

View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart

Although we tend to think of television primarily as a household fixture, TV monitors outside the home are widespread: in bars, laundromats, and stores; conveying flight arrival and departure times in airports; uniting crowds at sports events and allaying boredom in waiting rooms; and helping to pass the time in workplaces of all kinds. In Ambient Television Anna McCarthy explores the significance of this pervasive phenomenon, tracing the forms of conflict, commerce, and community that television generates outside the home.
Discussing the roles television has played in different institutions from 1945 to the present day, McCarthy draws on a wide array of sources. These include retail merchandising literature, TV industry trade journals, and journalistic discussions of public viewing, as well as the work of cultural geographers, architectural theorists, media scholars, and anthropologists. She also uses photography as a research tool, documenting the uses and meanings of television sets in the built environment, and focuses on such locations as the tavern and the department store to show how television is used to support very different ideas about gender, class, and consumption. Turning to contemporary examples, McCarthy discusses practices such as Turner Private Networks’ efforts to transform waiting room populations into advertising audiences and the use of point-of-sale video that influences brand visibility and consumer behavior. Finally, she inquires into the activist potential of out-of-home television through a discussion of the video practices of two contemporary artists in everyday public settings.
Scholars and students of cultural, visual, urban, American, film, and television studies will be interested in this thought-provoking, interdisciplinary book.

More books from Duke University Press

Cover of the book Interventions into Modernist Cultures by Anna McCarthy
Cover of the book Captivating Technology by Anna McCarthy
Cover of the book Forgotten Readers by Anna McCarthy
Cover of the book Legality and Legitimacy by Anna McCarthy
Cover of the book Sensing Sound by Anna McCarthy
Cover of the book Clear Word and Third Sight by Anna McCarthy
Cover of the book To Die in this Way by Anna McCarthy
Cover of the book The Argumentative Turn Revisited by Anna McCarthy
Cover of the book Goth by Anna McCarthy
Cover of the book We Are the Face of Oaxaca by Anna McCarthy
Cover of the book Fatal Advice by Anna McCarthy
Cover of the book Light in the Dark/Luz en lo Oscuro by Anna McCarthy
Cover of the book Stepping Left by Anna McCarthy
Cover of the book Little Manila Is in the Heart by Anna McCarthy
Cover of the book Meeting the Universe Halfway by Anna McCarthy
We use our own "cookies" and third party cookies to improve services and to see statistical information. By using this website, you agree to our Privacy Policy