in books, TV, or films?

Question

I'm wondering whether the phrase 'in books, TV, or films' is correct. It seems to realize the 'in A, B, and C' structure; however, the preposition 'in' does not go with 'TV'. We cannot say 'in TV'.

Do we have to say 'in books, on TV, or in films' instead?

Related: How to combine in a sentence two verb–preposition pairs that have the same object — Edwin Ashworth, Jul 20 '16 at 09:31
Possible duplicate of Does this parallel structure need coordinated prepositions to avoid being a faulty parallelism? — Edwin Ashworth, Jul 20 '16 at 09:34
Worrying about this sort of thing (except perhaps in "learned" journals where the P-ists hang out) is being excessively anal. It is quite common to be forced by the nature of English to construct a "parallel" structure which is not quite as parallel as one would like, and, while one should certainly avoid this when avoidance is easy, distorting the rest of the sentence to "solve" the problem is far more distracting to the reader than simply accepting a smidgen of imperfection. — Hot Licks, Aug 21 '16 at 13:02
And who says you can't use "in TV"? What rule forbids that construct? — Hot Licks, Aug 21 '16 at 13:05
'He's something big in TV' sounds fine to my ears. But I'd never use 'Almost everybody must have encountered hobbits this in books, TV, or films'. — Edwin Ashworth, Jan 27 '22 at 19:07

score -1 · Answer 1 · edited Apr 13 '17 at 12:38

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Yes, it is correct. However, if on TV sounds better, you can say 'in books or films, or on TV' instead.

The phrase 'in books, TV, or films' is fine to use. Consider using the unabbreviated word television. Also, see the question, "Is "In movie and TV" correct?" which shows that you can say "in television" or (in TV.)

edited Apr 13 '17 at 12:38

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answered Jul 18 '16 at 15:53

54 69 6D

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To me this seems wrong, I have never heard anyone talk about what's *in TV, always on*. Also, the use of TV over television is completely normal. Edit: see this Ngrams search – BladorthinTheGrey Jul 18 '16 at 16:03
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@BladorthinTheGrey What is on TV is more of the programs and channels. What is in television is more like the content as a whole (its reoccurring themes, symbolism and morals.) See on TV, in TV Ngrams – 54 69 6D Jul 18 '16 at 16:12
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I'd disagree, based solely on personal experience - so I shan't be too harsh - I have never heard what is in TV. However this may be an AmE/BrE split. Also it seems that the on usage as you put it is what the OP wants. – BladorthinTheGrey Jul 18 '16 at 16:15
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@BladorthinTheGrey That's true. It's like saying "on yesterday" or just "yesterday." – 54 69 6D Jul 18 '16 at 16:17
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You wouldn't say "in TV", but in this context, where TV is an item in a list, I think it's acceptable. It could also be interpreted as "in the domain of books, TV, and films", in which case it's not incorrect at all. – Max Williams Jul 18 '16 at 16:30
@BladorthinTheGrey There is no AmE/BrE split here at all. However, "ïn TV", only works if referring to the industry, as in: in theater. – Lambie Jan 27 '22 at 15:19

in books, TV, or films?

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