ABSTRACT
IT has become axiomatic of studies of media audience behavior to assume or document the ways that people do not act on mediated communications as a mass. While the aggregate circulation for media outlets may show some predictability, audience responses to the media, and the consequences of those responses, vary enormously among individuals., social groups, and social settings. As a departure point for understanding the dynamics of media use, it is still useful to consider the claim of Freidson (1971, p. 207) that “an adequate concept of the audience must include some idea of its social character, some idea that being a member of a local audience is a social activity in which interaction with others before, during and after any single occasion of spectatorship has created definite shared expectations and predisposing definitions.” Television viewing for most persons is, in fact, an activity linked to various ongoing social goals and may show rhythms of use distinctive to changes in the life span (Dimmick, McCain, & Bolton, 1979). Such change-points — e.g., entry into adolescence, marriage, or parenthood — often manifest changes in family structure and familial role. Surprisingly little research has examined changes in media use that attend changes in life-span role. Among the reasons for this lack of systematic investigation could be problems in applying the appropriate processual methods (Smith, 1972; Meyer, Traudt, & Anderson, 1980), as well as the lack of theoretical models other than functionalism (McQuail & Gurevitch, 1974).
