Gender Differences in Family Viewing: An Analysis of David Morley’s Article

defines their preferences as having low status" and as a result cannot argue for their own preferences as the things their husbands watch are more 'prestigious. ' This could be interpreted as suggesting that women subconsciously bow down to their male equivalent's preference and underlines orthodox interpretations of social gender role further.According to my television consumption questionnaire men are more likely to watch television at night whilst women tend to watch in more variable patterns. This could be down once again to social gender roles as men tend to come home from work and watch television at night whilst women are the traditional home keepers. Although this is very dependable on age and as more and more women are working full time it would seem less likely and perhaps more to do so with scheduling.

For example the questionnaire indicates that women generally watch soaps and dramas, which are normally shown during the daytime and early evening whilst men tend to watch films and sports which are generally later on at night during typical weekdays. Unlike Morley's findings the questionnaire indicates that men are just as likely to multi-task whilst watching television, but in different ways. Whilst women are certainly more likely to be doing domestic duties whilst watching television, it would appear that men simply do other things whilst watching television such as eat or play on computer games.Therefore the evidence would suggest that when men multi-task whilst watching television it is down to entertainment whilst women multi-task whilst watching television in order to perform domestic duties. The questionnaire also suggests that men are more likely to watch television alone then women, which would link

with Morley's suggestion that men prefer to watch television in complete silence.

However much of this data is questionable as both sources came from a small sample and as a result cannot be related to all social groups around Britain and certainly not the whole population.It is also well documented that women tend to overstate whilst men understate which puts into question just how much of a male dominance there is when selecting what to watch. Morley's research also took place some time ago and could be outdated in relation to modern gender roles within the household. In conclusion it would appear that there is a significant difference between the television viewing habits between genders, although just how much and the key differences are debatable.