Today's television is characterized by the special attention it pays to viewers, who have become the structural axis of all its programs. This book defines this trend from the most outstanding theories on mass communication in recent years. Based on the reconstruction of the sociological framework in which television is produced and consumed, the author places the entertainment programs in their historical and media context, showing their most relevant aspects.
The review focuses primarily on the 1998/99 and 1999/2000 television seasons and defines the most salient features of the production, programming and consumption of prototypical and top-rated programs as well as the keys to their success.
Television magazines are a true macro-genre that in the 1990s has gradually turned all kinds of off-television material into spectacle. In these programs, contact with the viewer and the "live effect" are the sine qua non of representation.
The author highlights that entertainment genres are a true public forum, where many emerging sociopolitical issues are debated, and a para-institution, which tends to fill the growing gaps of traditional institutions in liberal society.