The Resourceful Reader The Resourceful Reader :

for Communication Yearbook 15. The resourceful reader:Interpreting television characters and narratives The television viewer is an active interpreter, not a passive recipient, of programs. Viewers'interpretations of programs mediate television effects. The 'active viewer' is accepted by bothtraditional and critical mass communication scholars, allowing for a possible convergencebetween these two schools through a more sophisticated theory of the relation between text andreader. Recent empirical research within the reader-reception theory tradition is discussed. Anoriginal research program is described in which the 'role of the reader' is explored, using bothquantitative and qualitative methods to show how viewers' interpretations of programs dependon their sociocognitive resources (a summary of experiences and understandings of everyday life)as well as on program structure. Theoretical problems with reception research are considered,focusing on the differences between comprehension and interpretation and between consensusand divergence, and the nature of the preferred reading and the active viewer.