Initially, the assumptions were referred to as theory of affect-dependent stimulus arrangement, but subsequently gained more prominence under the label of mood management (Knobloch, 2006).
Festinger notes that the human organism tries to establish internal congruity among cognitions such as attitudes, beliefs, and knowledge about oneself and the environment.
Zillmann and his colleagues thus proposed the mood management theory that attempts to cope with the broadest possible range of message choices such as news, documents, comedies, dramas, tragedies, music performances, and sports.
In other words, the formation of these preferences is controlled by a mechanism called operant conditioning, which refers to the use of consequences to modify the occurrence and form of behavior.
Bryant and Zillman state this to be supporting for the mood management hypothesis, on their arousal regulation via media consumption.
The theoretical proposition of mood management theory has been faced with challenges, especially when studying (1) the role that negative moods and burdening feelings play within the entertainment experience; (2) the diversity of individual users, social and cultural situations, and media products on offer, and (3) the new, so-called interactive media and how entertainment can best be conceptualized within them (Vorderer, 2003).