This is a new paperback edition of a book originally published (by OUP) in 1990. It includes a new Introduction by the authors. It is on many reading lists already, so the paperback should be bought by students. The book is a path-breaking study of how TV viewers interpret popular TV programmes - in this case, Dallas .

Introduction to the 1993 Edition. Preface. 1. On Viewing Dallas Overseas: Introduction to the Study. 2. Reading Television: Television as Text and Viewers as Decoders. 3. The Research Design. 4. One Moroccan Group: A Transcipt and Commentary. 5. Cultural Differences in the Retelling of an Episode. 6. Mutual Aid in the Decoding of Dallas. . 7. Referential Reading. 8. Critical Reading. 9. Neither Here Nor There: Why Dallas Failed in Japan (with Sumiko Iwao). 10. Dallas and Genesis: Primordiality and Seriality in Popular Culture. 11. Dallas as an Educational Game. Appendix One. Appendix Two. Appendix Three. Notes. References. Name Index. Subject Index.

Is there really a global village out there? It may be true that the whole world watches Dallas and Dynasty, but is everyone seeing the same story? It is a fashionable worry among academics, critics and politicians that American hit programmes are agents of cultural imperialism. But nobody knows what message, if any, the viewers are actually getting and what critical capabilities they command. In this path-breaking book, now available in paperback, Liebes and Katz analyse conversations about Dallas among groups of families and friends in different sub-cultures: in Israel (where the programme was an all-time best-seller), in Japan (where it was rejected), and in the US (the original target audience). The authors propose that there is a process of negotiation between these quintessentially American stories and what the viewers bring to them: their life experiences, the ‘texts’ of their culture, and their expectations from the genres of family drama. Through a detailed study of how individuals in different contexts interpret popular TV fiction, Liebes and Katz show that viewers possess a good deal more critical ability than they are commonly given credit for. The Export of Meaning has already established itself as a classic text in media studies, cultural studies and communications. The paperback edition, which includes a new Introduction by the authors, will be widely recommended to students.

'This is an important book that thoroughly deserves the attention it will no doubt get from media scholars in many countries ... The authors ... deserve, above all, our admiration for making a major contribution to furthering our understanding not only of cultural imperialism but of the fundamental processes of media consumption.' Journal of Communication '... A new edition of the provocative 1990 book by veteran international communication scholar Elihu Katz and his colleague Tamar Liebes.' Media Information Australia