Teleology brings together John Hartley's work on television. The book draws on current critical theory in cultural studies to develop a wide-ranging and thought-provoking view of television broadcasting in Britain, Australia and the USA.
Neighbours, Hancock's Half Hour, Dallas, Monty Python, Miami Vice, Beverly Hillbillies and Bonanza are among the examples of TV art that are discussed in Hartley's exploration of cultural politics. He takes in TV truth and propaganda; populism in the news; mythologies of the audience; TV drama as a `photopoetic' genre in the tradition of Shakespeare; Kylie Minogue, Madonna and gardening shows.
Part I Television theory 1 Tele-ology 2 Television and the power of dirt Part II Truth wars 3 Regimes of truth and the politics of reading: a blivit 4 Consciousness razing 5 Home help for populist politics: relational aspects of TV news Part III Paedocracy 6 Invisible fictions 7 The real world of audiences 8 Out of bounds 9 Regimes of pleasure: a fragment Part IV Photopoetics 10 The politics of photopoetry 11 Continuous pleasures in marginal places 12 A state of excitement Part V The art of television 13 Local television: from space to time 14 Quoting not science but sideboards (with Tom O'Regan) 15 Two cheers for paedocracy
