ABSTRACT

WHAT has brought audience interpretive activity to the forefront for me is the generally weak relationships we consistently (and sometimes inconsistently) find between television viewing and beliefs. While there are other explanations as well, it does seem a fruitful line of research to suggest that effects questions based on manifest content analysis of television texts may not be as useful in exploring the consequences of media use as effects questions based on more sophisticated critical reader-response analysis, which in turn may not be as useful as questions based on audience readings.