This paper discusses the utility of an ethnographic method that incorporates various participant observation techniques in providing information about family television viewing. It presents arguments for a naturalistic case study approach focusing on family-media interaction and suggests three methods of data collection: interviews and followups; a battery of surveys and a television diary; and observations of selected variables in the home, including physical settings and viewing arrangements, rules and control of viewing situations, personal activity and overall media usage profiles, visual and auditory competencies, and demographics. The paper contends that these measures provide three "windows" for variable analysis that help to verify and lend support to findings. A procedural calendar outlines specific procedures and examples for data collection. (Author/RL)