ACTIVE THEORY OF VIEWING

The active theory of viewing describes viewers, particularly children as actively and
consciously working to understand television content. Audiences are actively involved in making
sense of the message within their environmental context. They interact with the text rather than
the text merely having a direct influence on a passive audience. "The active theory defines the
child as an active processor who is guided by previous knowledge, expectations and schemata."
(Anderson and Lorch, 1983)
The founders of this theory are Daniel Anderson and Elizabeth Lorch, with Anderson first
presenting the research paper as part of a symposium on children's processing of information
from television, American Psychological Association annual meeting, New York, September,
l979. This theory was developed to challenge the reactive theory, which suggests that television
viewing is fundamentally reactive and passive.
Some of the arguments used by Anderson and Lorch in developing the theory are that;
children begin to systematically watch TV at around 21/2 years, because it is at that time that
they have the cognitive ability to begin to appreciate the meaning of the dynamic flow of images
and sounds of television; young children rather than being passively controlled by the formal
dynamic features of television, try to understand them; if the children do not understand a TV
program at some level appropriate to their cognitive development, they do not watch it.
Studies investigating selected aspects of children's television viewing are described and
the findings are used as the basis of a theoretical formulation in which young children's
television viewing is seen as a transactional process similar to other normal information
processing activities. According to this formulation, the child's motivation to understand what he
or she is viewing is a primary driving force of attention to television. Children develop a
sophisticated strategy which allows them to effectively divide their visual attention between
television and other activities.
This strategy depends heavily on the children's use of program attributes as cues to
whether the current content is or is not informative. If the attribute signals informative content,
the child pays full attention to the television and actively attempts to understand the program.
Attributes such as children's voices, peculiar voices, women's voices, sound effects, auditory
changes, applause, and laughter have been shown to elicit and maintain looking at the television.
It is argued that the effects of these attributes stem from the information which they provide the
child about the likely comprehensibility of the content. For example, peculiar voices on
television almost always mean content meant for children. It is suggested that with time, the
child comes to learn these characteristics of the television medium and employ them to direct
attention. Basically, the child cognitively interacts with the information being presented as well
as with the viewing environment.
To understand the characteristics of the active theory of viewing, it is necessary to
contrast with the characteristics of the contradicting reactive theory. They each hold totally
opposite views on the relative power of the media over audiences but are both audience centered
in their development. Therefore, their characteristics can be derived from the characteristics of
the audiences the theories describe as simply categorized in the table:

Characteristics of Active Audience

Engaged
Involved
Responsive
In control
Free willed

Characteristics of Passive Audience

Easily manipulated
Compliant
Weak willed
Media followers
Controlled Dominant

The active theory is characterized by an audience who are engaged with the content and
not just a one way manipulation by content, audiences draw inferences from their environment;
they are actively involved in understanding the message; they respond to the message because of
its interactive aspect where the audience can form an opinion, or have a thoughtful response to
the content; audiences are in control of what they gain from the content rather than them being
directly influenced by content; audiences are free willed in their interaction by the media and not
dominantly controlled.
Coming to a definite conclusion on which theory is more valid would be almost
impossible since both theories continue to get increased support by growing bodies of empirical
evidence.

References
Anderson, D. R. & Lorch, E. P. (1983). Looking at Television:Action or Reaction? In J.
Bryant and D. R. Anderson, eds., Childrens Understanding of Television: Research on
Attention and Comprehension. New York:Academic.
Baran, S. J. & Davis, D. K.(January 1, 2011). Mass Communication Theory: Foundations,
Ferment, and Future, 6th Ed. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Publishing.

Published works
Rubin, A. M. (1984), Ritualized and Instrumental Television Viewing. Journal of Communication, 34: 67
77. doi: 10.1111/j.1460-2466.1984.tb02174.
Watkins, B. (1985), Television viewing as dominant activity of childhood: A developmental theory of
television effects. Critical Studies in Mass Communication, Vol. 2, Iss. 4.
LIN, C. A. (1993), Modeling the Gratification-Seeking Process of Television Viewing. Human
Communication Research, 20: 224244. doi: 10.1111/j.1468-2958.1993.tb00322.x