Beschreibung:
<jats:p> The representation of social issues in entertainment television challenges the assumed and nominal function of such programming to simply entertain its audience. Drawing on focus groups with television viewers in the UK, this article explores the ways in which audiences engage with and use entertainment television in discussions of social issues that conventionally have been framed narrowly across news and entertainment media: crimes against children, immigration and disability. Entertainment television that includes alternative perspectives on these issues offers the possibility of broadening resources and encouraging deliberation, although assumptions about the role of entertainment television are reflected in audience scepticism about the appropriateness of using such programming as a basis for considering the social world. </jats:p>