Active Audiences

Throughout the years, television has played a significant role in most of the humans’ lives. In the past it used to be a cool medium, i.e. with no possibility of interaction, but “the rise of new media has introduced entirely new forms of behaviour, involving interactivity and searching, rather than watching and listening” (McQuali, 2010). Now that the shows and channels are available also online, there is better, faster and cheaper access to all required programs, which tend to be more influential, as thanks to the Internet audiences have more possibilities to become active. But what is an active audience and what activities are they involved in? Is there also such a thing as a passive audience?


There are no rules as it comes to how to watch TV – it can be watched in a group or individually. However, the reactions towards it may vary according to the audience participants. The subjects ‘discussed’ within TV shows are related to many issues, such as religion, politics, education, family, globalization etc. Some of the viewers might not agree with the way of presentation, others may feel offended by certain shows and others still might not understand the context and find it simply funny or maybe disturbing.

While watching in a group, different perceptions may lead to discussions during (watching aloud) or after the show. Also, watching with different groups of people may change the perceived meaning of the shows, for example an attitude change towards an issue may occur or another angle of that issue may be spotted.
Nowadays we tend to experience media content in solitude, on the phone, tablet or computer, this is mainly due to the Internet and the digitalization of media. However, we still can be active as an audience. Discussion, feedback and comments may follow online or post-broadcast.

I believe that audiences are always active to some extent. Whether watched in groups or individually, the decoding of the messages within the show could be defined as an active process in itself - we view them critically and resist or adopt them. Apart from being reflective, viewers can moreover get involved in discussions, petitions and comments about the shows, sometimes even making real changes to its contents.