A major contribution to the understanding of the place of the media in modern society, this book consists of the results of seven studies, each examining different aspects of society's complex relationship with television and other media. The studies include examinations of the attitudes of homosexuals toward the representation of sex and sexuality on TV; fictional violence and how viewers relate to it; election coverage and notions of impartiality and bias in political broadcasting; the 1991 Gulf War and its representation on world television; and the ability of broadcasters to edit scenes from factual programs, enabling them to produce their own preferred and more acceptable reading of the scenes.