Audiences A Sociological Theory of Performance and Imagination [Paperback]

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 revAudiences 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 rev`From a theoretical point of view, they provide a valuable update on how recent debates within cultural studies should alter the direction of critical audience research.... The considerable breadth of subject matter covered in this book is organized logically and presented in extremely readable prose.... The authors also provide a valuable service in differentiating among audience activity.... This book is worth reading for a numberl.