Active and Passive Conceptions of the Television Audience: Effects of a Change in Viewing Routine
通过现场实验，结合定量和定性数据，研究电视观众在观看习惯改变时的主动性与被动性，发现内容吸引力影响观看行为，观众可基于对内容或媒介的取向以及控制感来区分。
Are human beings best viewed as active or passive in relationship to their environment? Television audience research in recent decades exemplifies this longstanding issue. Polarization on the question may be due to a tendency to compartmentalize qualitative and quantitative data. In this study, a prototypicalfield experiment involving 156 adult residents in a large Australian city generated both types of data to clarify the nature of television audience activity. Viewing frequencies for a group restricted to their least preferred channel decreased significantly when compared to two other comparison groups suggesting that attraction to content does in fact play an important role in influencing viewing behavior. Qualitative comments elicited during the experience of being restricted suggested important differences in respondents' affinity with the medium. Viewers can possibly be distinguished on the basis of whether they orient to content or medium and whether they experience a sense of freedom and control or a lack thereof. The value of field experimentation as a way to generate both convergent quantitative and divergent qualitative data is emphasized.