"Exploring Television" is an inquiry/discovery textbook designed to help students to understand, analyze, criticize, evaluate, and judge the experiences they have had in front of the television set. The text consists of three main parts. "The Medium" inquires into the radio-movie origins of television and prompts research into the networks and other aspects of the television industry. "The Message" explores the different genres of television programs: commercials, news, variety shows, situation comedies, westerns, and so on. Questions of plot, character, setting, motivation, credibility, and values are posed for group discussion. The third part of the text, "The Message," explores the image which television reflects of American womanhood, manhood, the family, the ethnic composite, and the uses of power in our society. The unit then asks what television is doing to us and what influence it is having on our cultural, educational, social, and political institutions. Most of the units begin with a data-gathering section and include exercises, role-playing suggestions, activities, research projects, and space for the student's summation of and reaction to the material covered in the text. For the accompanying teacher's guide see EM009225. (JY)