Recepção televisiva e mediação: práticas em contexto familiar

Abstract

This article analyses the interaction and mediation processes of the family with regards to television. The analysis is based on a study conducted with families from different socio-economic and geo-graphical environments in Braga, a city in northern Portugal. The aims of this investigation were to analyze television reception by families in a broader context of daily social practices, and to under-stand the mediation processes that families carry out with regards to the television experiences of their children. We start from the idea that this mediation grants particular meanings to television reception, and that it is arguably the most important and decisive way by which families promote a positive television consumption, especially regarding the younger audience. The study is theoretically based in the interaction and social mediation paradigm, as a “program, a model for sociological analysis” (Martín Serrano, 1978: 44) that confers meaning to the daily social practices and identifies the mediation processes related with television reception.