Concluding Discussion

Abstract

The relevance of this research, using a unique body of data, has identified significant additions to prisoner audience research. This study has, by focusing on in-cell television, provided a unique perspective on the social relations within the prison setting. The analysis has identified that forms of governance (Rose 1999) and Layder’s (2004) model of control (personal and interpersonal) provide a specific interpretation of the kinds of relationships prisoners have with television, between social agents and with the institution of the prison. There is a danger of viewing the role of television through a functionalist lens, and a risk of over-emphasising the qualities and direct impact of television in these ways: for example, the relationship between achieving personal control of emotion and watching television, and that television is a functional constant in the control of emotion. The problem of ‘essentialism’ as discussed by Morley (1997) is not easy to avoid and repeatedly throughout this book, the functionality of television for these audiences and this environment cannot be distinguishable from forms of control. Moreover, uses and gratification models such as Lull’s theory of the social uses of television (1990) have been validated and instrumental throughout the analysis. Oversimplifying this relationship, however, can also negate the diversity, richness, emotionality and complexity of everyday life in prison with television.