Opposing Conceptions of the Audience: The Active and Passive Hemispheres of Mass Communication Theory

Working the definitions, ideologies, and implications of the concepts of active and passive audiences, Biocca uses the research literature to demonstrate that the active audience position is overextended and often trivial. He removes the locus of control from both the media and the individual and places it in the center of physiological, psychological, social, and semiotic structures.