Page 176 - Decoding Culture

THE RISE OF THE READER 169
T e levision (Morley, 1986: 14 , where, as he puts it himself, 'my
)
focus of interest had thus shifted from the analysis of the pattern of
differential audience "readings" of particular programme materials
[the Nationwide study 1 to the analysis of the domestic viewing con­
text itself - as the framework within which "readings" of
programmes are ordinarily made'. By interviewing 18 families (ini­
tially parents, and then their children as well) he hoped to develop
an understanding of how television was viewed and used in the
domestic setting that forms its 'natural' viewing environment. In
the event, if there is a single aspect that is fore grounded in this
research, it is gender and the ways in which gender-based power
manifests itself in the routine practices of television viewing: 'the
one structural principle working across all the families interviewed
is that of gender' (ibid: 146) . For all its evident significance, how­
ever, that is not the aspect to which I wish to draw attention here.
My concern is more with Morley's admirable theoretical intent 'to
formulate a position from which we can see the person actively pro­
ducing meanings from the restricted range of cultural resources
which his or her structural position has allowed them access to'
(ibid: 43) .
Now it is not clear to me - nor, to be fair, is it claimed by Morley
(1992: 59-60) - that F a mily T e levision actually provides us with
this sort of access to processes of meaning production in a struc­
turing context. Readers of the interview accounts may receive
glimmers of such insight, but only by constructing their own the­
oretical analyses in the course of reading the material. Apart from
gender, which is afforded a separate discussion, there is no sys­
tematic account of 'the restricted range of cultural resources'
employed by the interviewees in constructing meaning. I do not
intend that observation as a strong criticism; to draw out such
processes from detailed interview data is a formidable challenge.
But it does lead me to two general observations about this and

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