Customer Reviews

Living Without the Screen: Causes and Consequences of Life without Television (Lea's Communication)

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These days, there are very few research studies in social sciences where one thinks 'why hasn't this been done before?'. Here is one of them. In truth, a few researchers have looked at television non-viewers but, to my knowledge, none of them has done so in anything like this depth. Krcmar deserves enormous credit for having done so. There is a wealth of worthwhile material and discussion here that should make any social scientist with a pulse engage with the subject of television use in a fresh way.

Moreover, this is a serious, academic treatment. The author strives - sometimes too much, I thought - for detached objectivity and neutrality and adopts a solid methodology. It isn't without its flaws, some more significant than others. For example, I didn't fully accept her theoretical analysis (the failure to deal with Kubey and Csikszentmihalyi's seminal book on television use was a relevant gap here) and I thought her criticisms of Robert Putnam's arguments in 'Bowling Alone' were misplaced. Still, at least the author engages with and tries to use theory to frame her analysis. Moreover, the various findings should form important starting points for a range of further work in this area.

The shelves of libraries and book stores groan with media studies texts. This is more important than 95% of them. The interview material alone is worth the price of the book. I'm an academic, so I'm almost bound to disagree on some theoretical issue or other. However, that doesn't detract from my admiration for this significant contribution to our understanding of the hidden underside of television studies, the 1% or 2% of the population who reject television in their lives. Like the author, I am also a non-watcher of television. I therefore also found it of significant personal interest. We live in a world saturated with television. It's encouraging to be reminded that there are others who realise that there is an alternative.