Audiences: A Sociological Theory of Performance and Imagination

Front Cover
SAGE, Apr 7, 1998 - Language Arts & Disciplines - 208 pages
`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.

 

Selected pages

Contents

Introduction
1
Chapter 1 Changing Audiences Changing Paradigms of Research
3
Chapter 2 Forms of the Audience
39
Chapter 3 Spectacle and Narcissism
77
Chapter 4 Imagination and Resources
99
Chapter 5 Fans and Enthusiasts
121
Methods Issues and Theories
159
References
181
Index
191
Copyright

Other editions - View all

Audiences: A Sociological Theory of Performance and Imagination
Nicholas Abercrombie,Brian J Longhurst
Snippet view - 1998
Audiences: A Sociological Theory of Performance and Imagination
Nicholas Abercrombie,Brian J Longhurst
No preview available - 1998
Audiences: A Sociological Theory of Performance and Imagination
Nicholas Abercrombie,Brian J Longhurst
No preview available - 1998

Common terms and phrases

active audience actors aestheticized approach argues argument attention audi audience activity audience members audience theories Bay City Rollers become behaviour central ceremony chapter characters cinema commodities complex concept concerns construction consumers consumption contemporary society context continuum Coronation Street critical cultist cultural day-dreaming diffused audience discussion dominant EastEnders effects Elvis Elvis Presley emotional emphasize ence everyday example experience fandom fans and enthusiasts fantasy film football forms genre gratifications groups identified identity ideological images imagined community important increasingly individuals interaction involved Jenkins kind live magazines mass audiences mass media means mediascape messages modern narcissism narcissistic nature notion paradigm particular patterns performers and audience play pleasure polysemic processes Radway reading relationship relatively ritual role semiotic sense significant simple audiences skills soap opera social capital space spectacle spectator Star Trek structure subcultures suggests talk texts theatre tion types viewers women

About the author (1998)

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 (ESPaCH), 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.

Bibliographic information

TitleAudiences: A Sociological Theory of Performance and Imagination
AuthorsNicholas Abercrombie, Brian J Longhurst
Editionunabridged
PublisherSAGE, 1998
ISBN1446264556, 9781446264553
Length208 pages
Subjects ›  › 

Language Arts & Disciplines / Communication Studies
Social Science / Anthropology / Cultural & Social
  
Export CitationBiBTeX EndNote RefMan