J. Roscoe et al., THE TELEVISION AUDIENCE - A RECONSIDERATION OF THE TAKEN-FOR-GRANTED TERMS ACTIVE, SOCIAL AND CRITICAL, European journal of communication, 10(1), 1995, pp. 87-108
This paper addresses recent debates concerning the conceptualization o
f the television audience and the viewing context. It re-examines conc
epts that have acquired 'commonsense' status within media studies, for
example, 'active', 'social', 'context' and 'critical'. These concepts
are discussed in relation to illustrative extracts from audience disc
ussions of the drama-documentary, Who Bombed Birmingham? Twelve group
discussions were carried out following presentation of the drama-docum
entary with the groups categorized as 'interest' and 'non-interest'. A
ttention is given first, to whether viewers actively negotiate meaning
s and how their readings are informed by their social group membership
s and second, to the way in which viewers draw upon knowledge sources
external to the text. Finally, consideration is given to the extent to
which it can be said that viewers' reflexivity constitutes 'critical'
readings.