Addressing a multitude of questions and issues surrounding how we use the media, Media Effects and Beyond represents the results of an international research programme into the use and effects of television, video and music. Seeing the viewer not simply as passive object but as a very active subject, the contributors engage with every aspect of children's, adolescents' and families' use of the media - its character, causes and consequences. Topics explored include media and social mobility; family commumication, and consumer lifestyles. Confronting the two traditions of lifestyle research and effects research, Media Effects and Beyond offers a much-needed reconceptualization of both. Written at a time when traditional European public service media systems struggle against a tidal wave of commercial electronic media, this book will be important reading for students of contemporary culture and communications, as well as media policy for decision makers.

List of figures and tables Acknowledgements Notes on contributors Part I: Introduction 1. Culture, media and society: Agency and structure, stability and change 2. Swenden and her media scene, 1945-90: A bird's-eye view 3. The Media Panel Program and related research Part II: Media use: Differentiation, change and stability 4. Media use under structural change 5. Looking for patterns in lifesyle behaviors 6. Models of change and stability in adolescents' media use Part III: Young perople and medial use: Individual, class and socialization 7. For better and for worse: Effect studies and beyond 8. Self-evaluation in an ecological perspective: Neighbourhood, family and peers, schooling and media use 9. Media and social mobility Part IV: Lifestyle and family communication 11. Seven lifestyles 12. Late modernity, consumer culture and lifestyles: Toward a cognitive-affective theory In conclusion Starting up