The study of television in a cross-cultural context

It is argued that the ways in which different cultures (and individuals within them) experience television, and not television per se (as a static variable with equal stimulus value), will lead to more meaningful and contextually accurate interpretations of how television is to be studied and interpreted cross-culturally. The culture-mediated subjective experience of television interacts with cognition and behaviors, and these variables form a “reciprocally deterministic” or “interactionistic” relationship that can only be understood against a backdrop of expectations and experiences within each culture. This invited commentary uses other articles in this special issue to highlight certain themes.