Videotime: Selection and Structuring Family Social Time With Rented Commercially Prerecorded Electronic Media

Abstract

Using in-depth interviews, this research investigates family members' processes for renting and watching commercially prerecorded video electronic media. The study finds that renting prerecorded video material is a negotiated process that begins in advance of viewing, and concludes that the social aspects of viewing are of paramount importance and concern to most family-oriented renters. In short, the viewers consider the time spent watching a rented video, or videotime, as family social time that is structured around this communal act. This study extends previous research in this area by explicating how families make decisions and negotiate the structuring of videotime.