Digital media have dramatically increased the nature and diversity of the ways people can access media content, and the assumption that audiences occupy a position of 'reception' is giving way to an understanding of audiences as media-active. As this handbook demonstrates, the study of audiences is shifting and changing accordingly. Working from the assumption that a better understanding will evolve if future researchers have a solid understanding of the complexity of 'audience' and 'audiences' and of existing research traditions, the contributors to this handbook offer a wealth of research wisdom and expertise, depth of theoretical engagement with the field, and creativity in the imagination of research interventions. They insist that there is no 'one-size-fits-all' way of doing audience research, but that the field works best by identifying particular 'audience problems' and applying the best theories and research methods to solving them. Placing the emphasis on technologies, theories, research methods and research pragmatics, this handbook brings together leading international scholars to provide a comprehensive overview of the complexity and diversity of audience studies.

Leseprobe

Notes on Contributors. Series Editor''s Preface. Acknowledgments. Introduction (Virginia Nightingale). Part I Being Audiences. 1 Readers as Audiences (Wendy Griswold, Elizabeth Lenaghan, and Michelle Naffziger). 2 Listening for Listeners: The Work of Arranging How Listening Will Occur in Cultures of Recorded Sound (Jackie Cook). 3 Viewing (Shawn Shimpach). 4 Search and Social Media (Virginia Nightingale). 5 Spreadable Media: How Audiences Create Value and Meaning in a Networked Economy (Joshua Green and Henry Jenkins). 6 Going Mobile (Gerard Goggin). Part II Theorizing Audiences. 7 Audiences and Publics, Media and Public Spheres (Richard Butsch). 8 The Implied Audience of Communications Policy Making: Regulating Media in the Interests of Citizens and Consumers (Sonia Livingstone and Peter Lunt). 9 New Configurations of the Audience? The Challenges of User-Generated Content for Audience Theory and Media Participation (Nico Carpentier). 10 The Necessary Future of the Audience ... and How to Research It (Nick Couldry). 11 Reception (Cornel Sandvoss). 12 Affect Theory and Audience (Anna Gibbs). Part III Researching Audiences. 13 Toward a Branded Audience: On the Dialectic between Marketing and Consumer Agency (Adam Arvidsson). 14 Ratings and Audience Measurement (Philip M. Napoli). 15 Quantitative Audience Research: Embracing the Poor Relation (David Deacon and Emily Keightley). 16 Media Effects in Context (Brian O''Neill). 17 Cultivation Analysis and Media Violence (Andy Ruddock). 18 Creative and Visual Methods in Audience Research (Fatimah Awan and David Gauntlett). 19 Locating Media Ethnography (Patrick D. Murphy). Part IV Doing Audience Research. 20 Children''s Media Cultures in Comparative Perspective (Sonia Livingstone and Kirsten Drotner). 21 Fan Cultures and Fan Communities (Kristina Busse and Jonathan Gray). 22 Beyond the Presumption of Identity? Ethnicities, Cultures, and Transnational Audiences (Mirca Madianou). 23 Participatory Vision: Watching Movies with Yolngu (Jennifer Deger). 24 The Audience Is the Show (Annette Hill). 25 Seeking the Audience for News: Response, News Talk, and Everyday Practices (S. Elizabeth Bird). 26 Sport and Its Audiences (David Rowe). Index.