Television and Consumer Culture

The radical expansion and dramatic changes in television broadcasting during the third quarter of the twentieth century reflected and promoted the development of a new form of consumer culture in Britain. Society was becoming marked by fragmentation, individualism and consumerism and at the same time, ITV, a new commercial service, was challenging the middle-class, public service BBC. This book's examination of television's novel intervention in and re-articulation of British culture over this period pinpoints a crucial moment in the development of consumer capitalism when television's novel metaphysical forms provided a model of consumption par excellence.