THE TELEVISION AUDIENCE - A RECONSIDERATION OF THE TAKEN-FOR-GRANTED TERMS ACTIVE, SOCIAL AND CRITICAL

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.