The Routledge Companion to Media Audiences / edited by Annette Hill and Peter Lunt.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Hill, Annette, editor.

Lunt, Peter K. (Peter Kenneth), 1956- editor.

Series:

Routledge Media and Cultural Studies Companions Series

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Mass media.

Mass media--Social aspects.

Mass media and culture.

Genre:

Essays.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (xviii, 581 pages)

Place of Publication:

London : Routledge, [2025]

Summary:

"The Routledge Companion to Media Audiences captures the ways in which audiences and audience researchers are adapting to emerging social, cultural, market, technical and environmental conditions.Bringing together 40 original essays, this anthology explores how our constantly changing encounters with media are complex, contradictory and increasingly commercialized in the modern world. Each specially commissioned chapter by both early-career and experienced international scholars surveys new conceptualizations and constitutions of audiences, and assesses key issues, themes and developments within the field. As such, this companion cements itself as an indispensable guide for students and researchers who seek a comprehensive overview and source of inspiration for a diverse range of topics in media audiences.The Routledge Companion to Media Audiences is an accessible, landmark tool which enhances our understanding of how media is utilized through advanced empirical research and methodological enquiry. It is a must-read for media studies, communication studies, cultural studies, humanities and social science scholars and students."-- Provided by publisher.

Contents:

Cover

Half Title

Endorsement Page

Title Page

Copyright Page

Table of Contents

Notes on the Contributors

Preface

Introduction to Companion to Media Audiences

Introduction

Audience Research: A Brief Introduction

Key Themes of the Companion to Media Audiences

Audience Layering

Audience Friction

Seven Parts of the Companion to Media Audiences

References

Part I: Audience Theories and Approaches

Introduction - Audience Theories and Approaches

Chapter 1: Constituting the Techno-Normal: The Practices of Everyday Media Consumption

Introduction: Questions and Premises

Futurologies of the Past: Newness and Presentism in History

From the Dominant Ideology Thesis to Non-Media-Centrism

Anthropological Perspectives and The Technologies of Everyday Life

Cultural Geography: Provincialising EurAm-centric Presumptions

The COVID-19 Pandemic as Solvent of Presumptions

Contextualist Perspectives-Against Media/Techno Centrism

Technologies of Citizenship: Visible and Invisible Infrastructures

Notes

Chapter 2: Mediations, Popular Cultures, and Cartographies: Contemporary Audiences in Latin America

From Media to Mediations

(Trans)national Popular Cultures in Latin America

Algorithmic Cultures: From Power Relations to Popular Appropriations

From the Popular to the Populist

Towards New Cartographies

Chapter 3: Media Audiences as Explorers of Interpretant Signs and Vulnerable Frames

Signs, Frames and a Vexed Question: Active or Passive Media Audiences?

The Semiotic Backwoodsman Meets the Explorer of Vulnerable Frames

A Canonical Semiological Perspective on Media Audience Research

On Becoming Signs to Engage in a Conversation with a Universe Suffused with Signs.

What's in a Frame That By-any-another-name Would Not Be the Same Experience?

Communication Conduct in a YouTube Channel: The Audience of the Web Series Tiranos Temblad

Framing as the Immediate Interpretant of Media Audiences

Chapter 4: How Universalised Language Misconstrues Audiences in the "Middle East"

Contradictions in Terms

Voice, Agency and Accountability

Audience Measurement, Advertising and Media Markets

Public Opinion Research and Surveys

Conclusion

Note

Chapter 5: De-Westernizing Fan Studies in the Era of Globalization and Digitization

Three Waves of (Western) Fan Studies: A Critical Review

National Fan Cultures Outside the Anglo-American Orbit

Global Fandoms of Non-Western Popular Culture

Non-Normative Fans of Anglophone Popular Culture

Conclusions

Chapter 6: Media-Ready Feminism, Everyday Sexism and Audience Reception: Negotiating the Entanglements of Polysemic Televisual Texts

Defining Everyday Sexism and the Context of Media-Ready Feminism

Defining the Entanglements of Media-Ready Feminism

Media-Ready Feminism in the Woke Moment

Methodology: Game of Thrones and House of the Dragon Reception

Audience Negotiations with Media-Ready Feminism in House of the Dragon: Feminism, Power, and the Women of Westeros

Feminist Resistance and Audience Reception in House of the Dragon: History, Natural Violence, and Constraints on Women's Power

Conclusion: How Has Reception Changed in the New Context of Media-Ready Feminism?

Chapter 7: From Media Audiences to Everyday Cultures and From Signifying Practice to Practical Sense

First Move: From Media Audiences to Everyday Cultures

Bridge Between First and Second Moves

Second Move: From Signifying Practice to Practical Sense.

Closing Remarks: Meaning and Power in Daily Living

Part II: Audience Imaginaries

Introduction - Audience Imaginaries

Media Organisations' Audience Imaginaries

Media Scholars' Audience Imaginaries

Chapter 8: Broadening the Imagined Audience: The Case of "Gamers"

Understanding Audience(s)

Theoretical Framework: Imagined Audiences

Building the Imagined Gamer

Legacies of the Imagined Gamer

Past Attempts to Broaden the Audience

Overturning the Imagined "Gamer"

The Role of Game Studies in Reimagining Players

Chapter 9: Platformisation and Personalisation: The Making of "Contingent" Online Audiences

Figuring Audience Imaginaries

The Platformisation of Digital Culture

Platform-based Personalisation: Distributing Attentional Resources

BookTok

The Making of Contingent Online Audiences

Conclusion: Figuring Audience Imaginaries

Chapter 10: Imagining Audiences as Media Users: Audience Research's Role as an Imagining Institution

When Silicon Valley Imagines the Audience: Web 2.0 and the Rise of the "Media User"

The Origins of the "User"

The User at the Service of Silicon Valley

Enter The User: Competing Imaginaries of People in Relation with Media

Media Repertoires as a Layered Imaginary of Media Audiences/Users

Imagining Media Audiences as Media Users: Opportunities and Risks

Keeping the Audience Alive

Grounding the User Theoretically

Conclusion: Imagining Audiences Without Fears

Chapter 11: Relationship Status of Journalists with Their Audiences on Social Media: It's Complicated

Digital disruption: When a third "person" enters into a relationship

Communities and audiences on Twitter: The case of Croatia.

Platform appropriation and the excluded audience

Engagement with young audiences on Facebook: The case of the BBC's People Fixing the World

The BBC: The influence of algorithms on journalists' audience imaginings

Navigating social media audiences: Between platform appropriation and platform dependency

Discussion: What will happen to the audiences of journalism?

Chapter 12: Allies or Antagonists?: Reconciling Engaged Journalism's Imagined Audiences

Journalism's Imagined Audience

The Promise of Engaged Journalism

The Reality of Dark Participation

Reconciling Two Opposing Imagined Audiences

A False Binary: An Agnostic Majority

Chapter 13: When TV Shows Get More Inclusive, Yet Audiences More Divided: How to Study Fan and Anti-Fan Communities Online

TV Audience Studies and The Key Contribution of Fandom Research

Case Study: the Rings of Power "Controversy"

Methodology

Findings

Reacting to Rings of Power Negatively

Fans' Contributions to Online Debates

The Dark Side of Rings of Power Fandom

Part III: Audience Modes

Introduction - Audience Modes: A Granular Approach

Chapter 14: Transmedia (Anti-Storytelling) Audiences

Transmedia Storytelling

Transmedia Anti-Storytelling

Everywhere We Look, We See Hashtags

Audience Engagement with Transmedia Anti-Storytelling

Transmedia Sociotechnical Mobilisations and Hashtivism

The Moral of the (Anti)Story

Chapter 15: Virtual (Idol) Audiences: Canon, Fanon, and Multivocality in Vocaloid Cultures

Vocaloids and Virtual Audiences

Multivocality Through Canon and Fanon

Multivocal Virtual Audiences

References.

Chapter 16: Immersive Audiences: Dreaming of Living in Media

A Note on Method

What Dreams Are They Living and How?

Why the Dreamworld?

Who Are the Immersive Audiences?

Discussion: What Kind of Immersion?

Chapter 17: Streaming Audiences: Deconstruction of Fashion Gender Stereotypes Through the Imitation of TV Series Outfits

Why Clothing?

Why TikTok

Sample Construction and Methodology of Analysis

Video Construction: Tiktokers' Audio and Video Skills

Clothes, Performances, and Rhetorical Register

When Fashion Seems More Important Than the Series: "Fashion Style" Videos

Clothes As Forms of Identity Expression

Chapter 18: Reactive Audiences: Carnal Videos

The Landscape of Carnal Videos

Multi-sensoriality of Mukbang

The Generic Aesthetics of Mukbang

Affective Economy of Mukbang

Reaction Videos

Inter/mediation of Re/action

Attention Economy of Reaction Videos

The Power Structure of Control and Capture Around Carnal Videos

Chapter 19: Bored Audiences: Zoned In and Out

Engines of Boredom?

Pandemic Gaming

Interludes and Binges

Media Zones

Part IV: Audience Engagement and Experiences

Introduction - Audience Engagement and Experiences

Chapter 20: Tracking Engagement in Documentary Viewing: A Critical Retrospect

Study 1. A Fair Day's Fiddle: Documentary Optics and Social Judgement

Study 2. Nuclear Reactions: Public Themes in a Comparative Frame

Taming the Dragon

Energy: The Nuclear Option

From Our Own Correspondent

Concluding Comments

Acknowledgement

References. Chapter 21: When Does Documentary Cut Through?: The Challenge of Tracing Documentary's Social and Political Impact through Audience Research.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on print version record and CIP data provided by publisher.

ISBN:

9781003268543 (electronic book)

9781040094969

1040094961

9781003268543

1003268544

9781040094891

1040094899

OCLC:

1436830682