Audience Studies Reader

Has political propaganda ever been effective? To what extent do African-American families interpret their favourite television show differently from their white neighbours? Are romance novels and teenage magazines reactionary fantasies, or can they provide women with an important space of their own? The Audience Studies Reader brings together key writings exploring questions of reception, interpretation and interactivity, reprinting forgotten pieces and combining key essays with new research. Beginning with a general introduction to the Reader, each extract is placed in its historical context with specially written section prefaces and annotated suggestions for further reading. Organised thematically and chronologically, sections address: The paradigm shift from effects to uses and gratifications Moral panic and censorship The active audience and reading as resistance Shifts in screen theory- the spectator and the audience The fan and the audience Gendering the audience Nationality and ethnicity The internet, information overflow and increased levels of interactivity The Audience Studies Reader provides a guide to thinking about the audience and suggests new ways of looking at the relationship between media texts and those who receive consume and interpret them. Essays by: Theodor Adorno, Ien Ang, Camille Bacon-Smith, Martin Barker, Bernard Berelson, Jacqueline Bobo, Eunice Cooper, Michel de Certeau, Dawn H. Currie, Helen Dinerman, Barbara Ehrenreich, Rebecca Emerson Dobash, Russell Dobash, John Fiske, Hazel Gaudet, Marie Gillespie, Sarah Gwenllian-Jones, Miriam Hansen, Elizabeth Hess, Richard Hoggart, Henry Jenkins, Gloria Jacobs, Sut Jhally, Elihu Katz, Paul F. Lazarsfeld, Tamar Liebes, Justin Lewis, Angela McRobbie, Robert K. Merton, David Morley, David Muggleton, Laura Mulvey, Janice Radway, Philip Schlesinger, Esther Sonnet, Jackie Stacey, C. Kay Weaver, Frederic Wertham, Charles Winick, Gregory WoodsBrooker, Will is the author of 'Audience Studies Reader' with ISBN 9780415254342 and ISBN 0415254345.