| Name: | Description: | Size: | Format: | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 406.5 KB | Adobe PDF |
Authors
Advisor(s)
Abstract(s)
This chapter discusses the role of television within Portuguese family
life. In particular, it examines how the domestication of television within
the home is influenced by the social context in which different types of
families live. The research is framed around the theory of domestication
and based on 50 semi-structured interviews.1
“Domestication” is the process by which the household and its
surroundings (both private and the public), together with the moral and
formal or objective economy, are related to each other and become
mutually constitutive (Silverstone, Hirsch and Morley 1999). The
metaphor of “domestication” originally comes from the taming of wild
animals, but has been usefully applied to the “domestication” of
information communication technology (ICT), including television, within
the home. Silverstone et al. (1999) have developed a range of concepts to
capture this process, of which the best known are: “appropriation”,
“objectification”, “incorporation” and “conversion”. These categories
describe how the entry of ICT into the home is managed; how artefacts are
physically (and symbolically) placed within the home; how they are
adapted into everyday routines; and how they are displayed to others
(Haddon 2007, 26). These four key concepts will be used in this chapter to
discuss the importance of television within Portugal as an example of a
small country in which there has been little research using this particular
theoretical approach. Most studies on Portuguese television have focused
on televisual history or come from research into trends in television
consumption. The domestication theory is a holistic framework, useful to
explain the meaning of television in Portuguese homes in all the stages of
its presence in daily life.
This forms part of a larger international project entitled Digital Inclusion and
Participation: Comparing the Trajectories of Digital Media Use by Majority and
Disadvantage Groups in Portugal and in the USA (UT Austin/Portugal Program).
Description
Keywords
Television Portuguese family life Social context
Citation
Lopes, Anabela Sousa - “Domesticating portuguese television”. In Jones, Huw David (ed.) – The media in europe's small nations. Newcastle-upon-Tyne: Cambridge Scholars, 2014. ISBN 978-1-4438-5417-7. pp. 141-156.