Media Use and Consumption: Inside and Outside the Home

For a long time, the domestic household has been dominated by women whereas men would have dominated the life and work outside of the home. In this essay I will discuss how media use and consumption in the home can be different to those in any other context. The role that gender can play in the living-room, and how difference in programs on the television can effect the difference in audiences, all while taking time and era into consideration as a factor.

During the 1920s “other companies struggled to compete in the new radio market, and the basic characteristics of broadcasting industry emerged” (Spigel 1992 P: 29) before the arrival of television in the home environment, the radio used to like the “fire place” of the home, or public, audience received news about the war via radio broadcast the fastest. Radio also broadcast poplar programs like west end musicals, political discussions and series like “war of the worlds” these were all the thing that families sat around and enjoyed together, and people were able to make contact with stations to review shows, and nowadays some of the ways to interact with the radio broadcast is to request for songs or enter competitions or the “call in for advice” type radio programs. Before the rise of home entertainment, audiences receives forms of media by going to theatre or cinema, where the whole area is gathered with massive amount of people, these people can respond together or even have discussion after the viewing, it brought people together. We are now becoming more aware of the notion that consumption of media is becoming more and more privatised.

Since the invention entertainment media in the domestic household, such as the TV and radio, meanings of “family time” has changed si...

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...nd newspapers. All of them can be found alternatively on the internet anywhere, so people do not have to catch a show a certain place or time; whether it’s travelling to a different city for a musical concert, or it’s to come home early to watch your favourite soap opera, all can be consumed online or via WIFI. So really my opinion is that there is no real difference between the consumption of the media in the home or any other context.

Reference:

• Media, home, and family. 2004. By Stewart M. Hoover, Lynn Schofield Clark, Diane F. Alters. Routledge

• Video playtime: the gendering of a leisure technology. 1992. By Ann Gray. Routledge

• Make room for TV: television and the family ideal in post-war America. 1992. By Lynn Spigel. The University of Chicago Press, Ltd. London

• Living-room war. 1997. By Michael J. Arlen. First Syracuse University Press Edition