These are both somewhat old now (late 1980s, early 1990s), but John Ellis's
Visible Fictions and John Fiske's Television Culture are both good places
to start. Two other useful books that present applications of various
theories to television are Robert C. Allen, Channels of Discourse,
Reassembled, and Leah Vande Berg's collection of readings called Television
Criticism.
        Good luck,
        Sandy Camargo
        Department of English
        University of Missouri


>    I have been asked to teach a course about cinema and television. As I
>am already teaching cinema studies, I know much more about film than tv,
>but am surprised to see that despite hundreds of books about television,
>there seems to be no textbook about television studies, or introduction to
>television studies. I can quote 30 books about violence in television, but
>I found none that can summarize the field of television studies. I would
>appreciate a few hints, and to enlarge the scope, I accept suggestions for
>books in English, French, or Spanish.
>
>            Thank you
>
>----
>Online resources for film/TV studies may be found at ScreenSite
>http://www.tcf.ua.edu/ScreenSite