`This book is worth reading for a number of reasons. It is the first introductory work of critical audience research that suggests how we can study the connection of media consumption in general with every day life, and it also goes beyond its competitors in showing how postmodern thinking can help us in the analysis of a ‘whole way of life’′ –
Journal of Communication
Audiences are problematic and the study of audiences has represented a key site of activity in the social sciences and humanities. Offering a timely review of the past 50 years of theoretical and methodological debate Audiences argues the case for a paradigmatic shift in audience research.
This shift, argue the authors, is necessitated by the emergence of the `diffused audience′. Audience experience can no longer be simply classified as `simple′ or `mass′, for in modern advanced capitalist societies, people are members of an audience all the time. Being a member of an audience is no longer an exceptional event, nor even an everyday event, rather it is constitutive of everyday life. This book offers an invaluable review of the literature and a new point of departure for audience research.
Table of Content
Changing Audiences
Changing Paradigms of Research
Forms of the Audience
Spectacle and Narcissism
Imagination and Resources
Fans and Enthusiasts
The Spectacle/Performance Paradigm
Methods, Issues and Theories
About the author
Professor Brian Longhurst is a sociologist who has long standing interests in cultural studies, media studies and the sociology of culture. His books include Popular Music and Society (Polity Press, 1995, 2007), The Penguin Dictionary of Media Studies (co-authored, 2007), Globalization and Belonging (co-authored, Sage, 2005), Introducing Cultural Studies (co-authored, Pearson, 1999, 2004) and Audiences: A Sociological Theory of Performance and Imagination (co-authored 1998). He has held research grants from various bodies including ESRC and EPSRC and has published widely in a range of journals and edited collections.
He was formerly Head of the School of English, Sociology, Politics & Contemporary History (ESPa CH), Associate Dean for Research and Director of the Institute for Social Research, all at the University of Salford. He has been a Director of Salford′s prize winning initiative, Community Finance Solutions and was the founding Chair of the Board of East Lancs Moneyline (ELM), a successful Community Reinvestment Trust.
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