Watching People Watching Television: what goes on in front of the TV set?

Abstract
This paper reports an observational study of families watching television in their own homes. Observational data were collected via a video camera housed within a special television cabinet placed in six family households. Results show that family members were absent for substantial proportions of the time the television set was in operation, and even when present did not pay full attention to the screen for more than a minority proportion of that time. Families and family members varied significantly in respect of certain patterns of television watching, but were similar in other respects. The results have implications for understanding the nature of television viewing in the natural viewing environment. Recommendations are offered for further analysis of these data.

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