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Consumption Of Women In The Home Research Paper

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For a long time, the domestic household has been dominated by women whereas men would have dominated the life and work outside of the home. In this essay I will discuss how media use and consumption in the home can be different to those in any other context. The role that gender can play in the living-room, and how difference in programs on the television can effect the difference in audiences, all while taking time and era into consideration as a factor.

During the 1920s “other companies struggled to compete in the new radio market, and the basic characteristics of broadcasting industry emerged” (Spigel 1992 P: 29) before the arrival of television in the home environment, the radio used to like the “fire place” of the home, or public, …show more content…

Before it, family members entertained each other by participating in “family activities” such as board games like monopoly, scrabble and cluedo. Families would also go on day trips to places such as the beach, countryside and amusement parks. However television has become an activity that everybody can enjoy or "chill out" to without the hassle of using ones mental or physical abilities. The term “couch potato” has been widely popular within recent times, the term mainly describes the “American’s ambivalent attitude toward media” (Hoover, Clark and Alters. 2004. P: 145). The meaning of it suggests the concept of a waste of precious time, procrastination and the perception slowly dying in the head and their awareness falls to a minimum. All of these imply the mass consumption of the television and its effect, television has the potential to "dumb down" its audience, rendering them incapable of using their own creativity, it also renders them unable to move freely.

Consumption of media in the home is seen as not much of a family exercise post mid 90’s, television became more a purpose of private viewing to audience, and less of a social activity. Children reaching a certain age group, receive the privilege of a television in their bedroom, thus separating the children from the parents in the living-room area which would lead to an increasing amount of privacy in the parents lives, despite the living-room area still being a communal area the effect

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