Television Studies provides an overview of the origins, central ideas, and intellectual traditions of this exciting field.

What have been the primary areas of inquiry in television studies? Why and how did these areas develop? How have scholars studied them? How are they developing? What have been the discipline’s key works? This book answers these questions by tracing the history of television studies right up to the digital present, surveying emerging scholarship, and addressing new questions about the field’s relationship with the digital. The second edition includes an examination of how internet-distributed services such as Netflix have adjusted the stories, industrial practices, and audience experience of television.

For all those wondering how to study television, or even why to study television, this new edition of Television Studies will provide a clear and engaging overview of key topics. The book works as a stand-alone introduction and, by placing key works in a broader context, can also provide an excellent basis for an entire course.

“Having written a landmark guide to television studies, Jonathan Gray and Amanda Lotz – two of the discipline’s most prominent practitioners – have updated their vivid intellectual history to account for key transformations in television and its scholarship over the past decade. An essential book.”

Jason Mittell, Middlebury College 

“No one is better placed to offer an up-to-date introduction to television and a compelling intellectual history of the field than Jonathan Gray and Amanda Lotz, two of the most engaging television scholars of their generation. A must-read for students and scholars alike.”

Catherine Johnson, University of Nottingham

Jonathan Gray is a professor of media and cultural studies at the University of Wisconsin–Madison.

Amanda D. Lotz is a professor of media studies and the author of several books about television and media industries.