Media & Audiences

MEDIA AND AUDIENCES New perspectives * How has the concept of 'the audience' changed over the past 50 years? * How are audiences more than just consumers of media texts? * How are new media and technologies affecting the ways in which audiences are researched? Media and Audiences: New Perspectives looks at the various ways in which 'the audience' as a concept has changed and examines the relationships between audiences, texts and technologies. A chronological as well as a thematic approach is used to explore a wide range of themes, including: * Audiences exerting their power as consumers * The political economy of audiences * The ways in which audiences are 'delivered' to advertisers * Broadcasters and the ratings war * The development of narrowcasting and niche audiences The book looks ahead to the future of audience research and suggests that new interactive genres, such as reality TV, and technologies such as the internet, are already revolutionizing the nature and scope of audience activity and research taking place in the 21st century. Media and Audiences: New perspectives is a key text for the study of audiences and is suitable for students working in a range of disciplines including culture and media studies, journalism, sociology and social psychology. Also available is a collection of essays written to accompany this text, entitled Critical Readings: Media and Audiences (Open University Press, 2003). These two books can be used to complement each other or as separate texts. Karen Ross is Reader in Mass Communication at Coventry University, UK. She has published extensively in the broad area of audience and identities. Her recent books include: Mapping the Margins (2003), Women, Politics, Media (2002) and Black and White Media (1996). Virginia Nightingale is Associate Professor in the School of Communication, Design and Media at the University of Western Sydney, Australia. Her research focuses on audience theory and research practice. She is the author of Studying Audiences: the Shock of the Real (1996).Ross, Karen is the author of 'Media & Audiences', published 2003 under ISBN 9780335206919 and ISBN 0335206913.