This article examines how the family is portrayed by television in four countries —Australia, Denmark, Hungary and Britain — with different cultures, political and broadcasting systems. It is based on results from the preliminary phase of an ongoing research project carried out in 1982 and sponsored by the Stiftung Prix Jeunesse.1 Despite the differences between the countries under study, the television presentations of the family are remarkably similar. Part of the explanation lies in the common Anglo-American origin of much of the fictional material studied.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
Barcy, Magdolna
and Katalin Hanák (1984) `Television and the Family. Portrayal of the Family on Hungarian Television' in Television and the Image of the Family. Munich: Stiftung Prix Jeunesse.
2.
Durkin, Kevin
(1985) Television, Sex Roles and Children. Milton Keynes: Open University Press.
3.
Gallagher, Margaret
(1981) Unequal Opportunities: The Case of Women and the Media. Paris: Unesco.
4.
Halloran, James
(1984) `Introduction' in Television and the Image of the Family. Munich: Stiftung Prix Jeunesse.
5.
Jones, Marsha
(1984) `The Family on Television. The Portrayal of the Family on British Television' in Television and the Image of the Family. Munich: Stiftung Prix Jeunesse.
6.
Laing, R.D.
(1971) Self and Others. London: Penguin Books.
7.
Laing, R.D.
(1976) The Politics of the Family. London: Penguin Books.
8.
Lasch, Christopher
(1977) Haven in a Heartless World: The Family Besieged. New York.
9.
Linné, Olga
and Niels-Aage Nielsen (1984) `The Family and Its Problems. Portrayal of the Family during a Week of Danish Television' in Television and the Image of the Family. Munich: Stiftung Prix Jeunesse.
10.
Mathiasen, Else-Marie
(1981) `The Problem Family' in Udkast No. 1. Copenhagen.
11.
Parsons, Talcott
(1959) `The Social Structure of the Family' in R.N. Anshen (ed.) The Family: Its Functions and Destiny. New York: Harper and Row.
12.
Poster, Mark
(1978) Critical Theory of the Family. London: Pluto Press.
13.
Rubin, Gayle
(1975) `The Traffic in Women: Notes on the “Political Economy” of Sex' in Rayna R. Reiter (ed.) Toward an Anthropology of Women. New York: Monthly Review Press.
14.
Stewart, Donald
(1984) `The Television Family. A Content Analysis of the Portrayal of Family Life in Prime Time Television in Australia' in Television and the Image of the Family. Munich: Stiftung Prix Jeunesse.
15.
Thorne, Barrie
(1982) `Feminist Rethinking of the Family: An overview' in Barrie Thorne and Marilyn Yalom (eds) Rethinking the Family. Some Feminist Questions. New York and London: Longman.
16.
Treichler, Paula
and Ellen Wartella (1986) `Interventions: Feminist Theory and Communication Studies'. Communication, 9(1).
17.
Tuchman, Gaye
(1978) `The Symbolic Annihilation of Women by the Mass Media' in Gaye Tuchman, Arlene Kaplan Daniels and James Benet (eds) Hearth and Home. Images of Women in the Mass Media. New York: Oxford University Press.
18.
Tunstall, Jeremy
(1977) The Media are American. London: Constable.