Television and the Quality of Life

Employing a unique research methodology that enables people to report on their normal activities as they occur the authors examine how people actually use and experience television -- and how television viewing both contributes to and detracts from the quality of everyday life. Studied within the natural context of everyday living and drawing comparisons between television viewing and a variety of other daily activities and leisure pursuits this unusual book explores whether television is a boon or a detriment to family life; how people feel and think before during and after television viewing; what causes television habits to develop; and what causes heavy viewing -- and what heavy viewing causes -- in the short and long term. <p/> <i>Television and the Quality of Life</i> also compares the viewing experience cross-nationally using samples from the United States Italy Canada and Germany -- and then interprets the findings within a broad theoretical and historical framework that considers how information use and daily activity contribute to individual familial societal and cultural development.<br>