Audience Analysis

by Denis McQuail

• ISBN13: 9780761910015
• ISBN10: 0761910018
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 1997-07-28
• Publisher: Sage Publications

Summary

'The book is essentially for a student of mass communication or may be of interest to the communications expert into communications reserach, theory or operations research. The author addresses a specific "audience" and does it to perfection with a simple very readable presentation' - The Economic TimesDenis McQuail provides a coherent and succinct account of the concept of 'media audience' in terms of its history and its place in present-day media theory and research. McQuail describes and explains the main types of audience and the main traditions and fields of audience research.Audience Analysis explains the contrast between social scientific and humanistic approaches and gives due weight to the view 'from the audience' as well as the view 'from the media'. McQuail summarizes key research findings and assesses the impact of new media developments, especially transnationalization and new interactive technology. The book concludes with an evaluation of the continued relevance of the audience concept under conditions of rapid media change. Audience Analysis provides both an overview of past research and a guide to current thinking.

Table of Contents

Preface	ix
1. A Concept With a History	1	(11)
The Audience Problem	1	(1)
History of the Audience	2	(4)
The Audience as a Mass	6	(1)
Rediscovery of the Audience as a Group	7	(1)
The Audience as Market	8	(1)
New Media and the Future of the Audience	9	(2)
Conclusion	11	(1)
2. The Audience in Communication Theory and Research	12	(13)
Critical Perspectives	12	(3)
Goals of Audience Research	15	(1)
Alternative Traditions of Research	16	(4)
The Structural Tradition of Audience Measurement	16	(1)
The Behaviorist Tradition: Media Effects and Media Uses	17	(1)
The Cultural Tradition and Reception Analysis	18	(2)
Issues Arising	20	(4)
Media Use as a Social Problem	20	(1)
The Mass Audience and Social Atomization	21	(1)
Audience Behavior as Active or Passive?	22	(1)
Alternative Perceptions of the Audience	23	(1)
Implications of New Media Technology	24	(1)
Conclusion	24	(1)
3. Typologies of Audience	25	(18)
The Duality of the Audience	25	(1)
The Audience as Group or Public	26	(4)
The Gratification Set as Audience	30	(2)
The Medium Audience	32	(2)
Audiences Defined by Channel or Content	34	(3)
The Breakup of the Mass Audience: New Types Emerge	37	(3)
Alternative Models of the Audience-Sender Relationship	40	(2)
Audience as Target	41	(1)
Audience as Participants	41	(1)
Audience as Spectators	41	(1)
Conclusion	42	(1)
4. Questions of Media Reach	43	(22)
The Need to Know the "Objective" Audience	43	(2)
Different Media, Different Concepts of Reach	45	(2)
A Generalized View of Media Reach and Impact	47	(3)
Overlapping Audiences: Different Functions, Places, and Times	50	(3)
The Spatial Dimension of Audience Reach	51	(1)
The Time Dimension of Audience Reach	52	(1)
Variable Media Use	53	(1)
Audience Composition	54	(1)
Audience Diversity: External Versus Internal Forms	55	(2)
On Audience Ratings: Quantity Versus Quality	57	(1)
Activity and Selectivity	58	(4)
The Transnational Audience	62	(2)
Conclusion	64	(1)
5. Principles of Audience Formation and Continuity	65	(22)
The "Why" of Media Use	65	(2)
A Structural Approach to Audience Formation	67	(2)
A Functionalist Model: The Uses and Gratifications Approach	69	(7)
Uses and Gratifications Rediscovered	70	(2)
Comment and Criticism	72	(2)
Expectancy-Value Theory	74	(1)
A Nonfunctionalist Alternative to Explaining Media Use	75	(1)
A "Pragmatic" Model of Audience Choice	76	(3)
"Audience Side" Factors	76	(2)
"Media Side" Factors	78	(1)
Tastes, Preferences, and Interests	79	(3)
Audience Flow	82	(3)
Conclusion	85	(2)
6. Audience Practices: Social Uses of the Media	87	(22)
Media Use and Everyday Life	87	(1)
A Misleading Model of Media Use	88	(2)
Public and Private Spheres of Media Use	90	(2)
Subculture and Audience	92	(1)
Lifestyle	93	(1)
Ethnicity and Media Use	94	(1)
Gendered Audiences	95	(3)
Sociability and Social Uses of the Media	98	(3)
Audience Reception and the Negotiation of Meaning	101	(1)
Media Use as Social Pathology	102	(1)
Normative Framing of Media Use	103	(2)
Norms for Content	105	(2)
Conclusion	107	(2)
7. Communicator-Audience Relations	109	(18)
Bridging the Gap	109	(3)
Communicator Perspectives on the Audience	112	(6)
The Audience as an Extension of the Communicator's Own Social World	113	(1)
Professional Reference Groups	114	(1)
Organizational Definition of Goals	114	(2)
Product Image, Audience Stereotype	116	(1)
The Manipulation of Audience Participation	117	(1)
The View From the Audience	118	(5)
Parasocial Relations	119	(1)
Social Milieux and Peer Groups	120	(1)
Media Fandom	121	(1)
Audience as Rational Consumers	122	(1)
Normative Ties Back to the Media	123	(1)
Forms of Accountability to the Audience	123	(2)
Conclusion	125	(2)
8. The Audience in Flux	127	(15)
The End of the Audience?	127	(1)
Technology as a Source of Change	128	(2)
Social and Economic Forces	130	(1)
The Impact on Audiences	131	(2)
More Power to the Audience?	133	(2)
Less Power to the Media?	135	(1)
The "Escape" of the Audience	136	(1)
Fragmentation: Varieties and Limits	137	(2)
Internationalization	139	(2)
Conclusion	141	(1)
9. The Future of the Audience Concept	142	(9)
New Challenges	142	(1)
New Audiences for New Media?	143	(2)
The Audience Lives On	145	(3)
Some Conceptual Issues	148	(1)
Audience Types and Terms: A Closing Word	149	(2)
References	151	(11)
Index	162	(4)
About the Author	166