NURIA LORENZO-DUS is Reader in the in the Department of English Language and Literature at Swansea University, UK. She has published widely on media discourse and cross-cultural pragmatics in international journals, such as Media, Culture& Society and Journal of Pragmatics, and is currently involved in an AHRC funded project on mediated memory and commemoration.

In a clear and engaging style, this book offers the reader a sophisticated yet accessible insight into the nitty-gritty of televisual discourse. Moving seamlessly across an astounding range of programme formats, speech genres, and analytic frameworks, Lorenzo-Dus explains how television shapes our perceptions, worldviews and lifestyles. Read this book and watch television with your eyes and ears open. Scary, gripping and thought-provoking. - Professor Adam Jaworski, Centre for Language and Communication Research, Cardiff University '...useful and interesting...' - Journal of Sociolinguistics

• AbbreviationsList of Extracts, Tables and FiguresAcknowledgementsIntroductionPART I: STORYTELLING Storytelling...or the Entertaining Construction of RealityOnce Upon a Time in a DocumentaryOnce Upon a Time in a Talk ShowPART II: CLOSENESS Closeness...or How Television Gets Up Close and PersonalLive News and Closeness'Close' Talk and Moral WorthinessPART III: CONFLICT Conflict...or the Rise of Spectacular IncivilityEmotional Conflict Talk and Reality TelevisionConflict Talk and PoliticsPART IV: PERSUASION Persuasion...or the Art of OccultatioPersuasion, Politics and TelevisionPersuasion and Lifestyle TelevisionInteracting in a Broadcast Medium: Some Final WordsGlossaryGuide to Further ReadingBibliographyIndex.