CfP VIEW Issue #31: Television and the Family

Editors: Rieke Böhling, Noel Brown, Eva Novrup Redvall

Forty years after David Morley’s (1986) seminal work that explored the uses of television within families and how family members make sense of television content, this special issue of VIEW Journal of European Television History and Culture seeks to reengage with these questions and go beyond them by exploring the many ways in which European television intersects with families, family routines and family life. Television and the family are closely interlinked. Even in households that (perhaps as a conscious decision) do not have or use television, the absence of it also often constitutes a topic of contention.

Whereas television as a mass medium in conjunction with the family as a particular audience as well as with the family as a representation has received some academic attention in the past – for instance with regard to how content is discussed within families (Keppler 1994), how families are portrayed on television (Douglas 2003), how television impacted American postwar family life (Spigel 1992), what role television and the family play for young people from ethnic minorities (Gillespie 1995), and how the relationship between television and families can be theorised (Ellis 1983) – more recent investigations that consider the role of television in relation to the family in a changing media environment are scarce. Some exceptions look at generational dynamics from an audience perspective (Andò 2014), consider television within the notion of “screen time” (Mascheroni and Zaffaroni 2025), and present an autobiographical life story of television within everyday practices (Holdsworth 2021).

This issue of VIEW is aiming to open up the conversation on the topic of families and television in today’s media environment. Submissions can address but are not limited to the following topics:

• Television formats for families and/or television that addresses multigenerational audiences
• Children’s television (e.g. children’s news or other PSB content for children)
• Television and family memories and/or childhood memories
• Television and family rituals
• Generational comparisons in regard to television and the family
• Television and practices of care within the family
• Gendered perspectives on television and the family
• The role of television in the broader media ensemble of the family
• Portrayals of families on television
• Television in relation to diverse or non-traditional families
• Formats that revolve around family histories and genealogical research (e.g. Who do you think you are)
• Families and television viewing practices
• The impact of digital convergence on families and television
• Families and television streaming
• The role of the family and/or family archives in television production
• Television and families with a migration history
• Methodological issues in researching families and television
• Historical perspectives on families and television
• Media pedagogical perspectives on families and television

References

Andò, Romana. 2014. “What Does TV Actually Mean? New Consumer Experience and Generations.” Participations Journal of Audience and Reception Studies 11 (2): 156–81.

Douglas, William. 2003. Television Families: Is Something Wrong in Suburbia? New York ; London: Routledge.

Ellis, Godfrey J. 1983. “Television and the Family: An Emerging Area.” Journal of Family Issues 4 (2): 275–78. https://doi.org/10.1177/019251383004002001.

Gillespie, Marie. 1995. Television, Ethnicity, and Cultural Change. Comedia. London ; New York: Routledge.

Holdsworth, Amy. 2021. On Living with Television. Durham: Duke University Press.

Keppler, Angela. 1994. Tischgespräche: über Formen kommunikativer Vergemeinschaftung am Beispiel der Konversation in Familien [Table Talks: on Forms of Communicative Communitization Using the Example of Conversation in Families]. Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp.

Mascheroni, Giovanna, and Lorenzo Giuseppe Zaffaroni. 2025. “From ‘Screen Time’ to Screen Times: Measuring the Temporality of Media Use in the Messy Reality of Family Life.” Communications 50 (1): 63–84. https://doi.org/10.1515/commun-2022-0097.

Morley, David. 1986. Family Television: Cultural Power and Domestic Leisure. London: Comedia.

Spigel, Lynn. 1992. Make Room for TV: Television and the Family Ideal in Postwar America. Chicago ; London: University of Chicago Press.

Submission requirements

We invite submissions from television scholars, media historians, researchers interested in the connections between film, television and digital screen media, audiovisual practitioners and archivists.

Contributions to this issue may take the form of full academic research articles (5.000-6.000 words) or shorter creative papers (“Enthusiasm”, around 3.000 words) as well as audiovisual essays. More details on submission formats can be found here. All articles will be peer-reviewed. VIEW is a diamond open-access journal.

Paper proposals (max. 500 words, plus a biographical note of max. 100 words) are due by April 15, 2026. Submissions should be sent to journal@euscreen.eu; please copy rieke.boehling@uni-bremen.de to your email. Authors can specify in their proposal the format of their contribution. A notice of acceptance will be sent to authors no later than June 1, 2026.

Full contributions will be due by November 30, 2026. Submission guidelines, including stylistic instructions, can be found here. As outlined in the guidelines, please note that the inclusion of audiovisual extracts is strongly recommended. The issue is scheduled for publication in summer 2027.

Questions about the issue can be directed to the co-editors of the issue: Rieke Böhling rieke.boehling@uni-bremen.de, Noel Brown brownn@hope.ac.uk, Eva Novrup Redvall eva@hum.ku.dk