This work outlines the theories and approaches to the study of television in an accessible form for students. It is divided into four sections - forms of knowledge, audiences, gender and race. It discusses many television texts including Star Trek, Kung Fu, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Xena: Warrior Princess, and Sesame Street. Key figures, debates and institutions include: cultivational analysis; Pierre Bourdieu; the Frankfurt School; Public Service Broadcasting; pharmaceutical advertising; and first peoples television. It is intended as an authoritative guide to the perspectives and theory available to a central area within media and cultural studies.