Media, communications and cultural studies form a rapidly growing part of secondary and tertiary education in Australia, yet there have been few books dealing specifically with Australian television. This is the first wide ranging study of television in Australia, and includes a coverage of the cultural and institutional history of Australian television as well as examining a wide range of television programming.

Prisoner, Perfect Match, Hey Hey It’s Saturday, A Country Practice, Vietnam and Beyond 2000 are some of the programs described and analysed. Issues are raised such as the relationship between children and television, the role of the television documentary and the function television serves in constructing communities.

The contributors to Australian Television: Programs, Pleasures and Politics include some of the leading researchers in Australian television and cultural studies and their articles employ a wide range of methods - from semiotic analyses to cultural histories. Despite their dealing with often quite sophisticated problems, the chapters are written in an accessible and lively manner. This is an important collection which opens out space for more informed and challenging discussions of Australia’s television culture - its programs, its meanings, its pleasures and its politics. It will be an invaluable text for all tertiary television, media studies, communications studies, Australian studies and cultural studies programs.