New book from UDC member John Sullivan: Media Audiences: Effects, Users, Institutions, and Power

Source: sagepub.com

It's that time. Publishers and bookstores are hounding you for your book orders, right? Well, for your media studies courses, consider UDC member John Sullivan's new book: Media Audiences: Effects, Users, Institutions, and Power (2012, Sage Publications).

Whether we are watching TV, surfing the Internet, listening to our iPods, or reading a novel, we are all engaged with media as a member of an audience. Despite the widespread use of this term in our popular culture, the meaning of the "audience" is complex, and it has undergone significant historical shifts as new forms of mediated communication have developed from print, telegraphy, and radio to film, television, and the Internet. Media Audiences explores the concept of media audiences from four broad perspectives: as "victims" of mass media, as market constructions & commodities, as users of media, and as producers & subcultures of mass media. The goal of the text is for students to be able to think critically about the role and status of media audiences in contemporary society, reflecting on their relative power in relation to institutional media producers.

This is a junior-senior level text, but is also suitable for entry-level graduate courses in audience studies.

Request a review copy here and get a discounted personal copy here.

Table of Contents after the jump...




Table of Contents:

1. History and Concept of the Audience

PART I. AUDIENCES AS OBJECTS
2. Effects of Media Messages

PART II. AUDIENCES AS INSTITUTIONAL CONSTRUCTIONS
3. Public Opinion and Audience Citizenship
4. Media Ratings and Target Marketing

PART III. AUDIENCES AS ACTIVE USERS OF MEDIA
5. Uses and Gratifications
6. Interpreting and Decoding Mass Media Texts
7. Reception Contexts & Media Rituals

PART IV. AUDIENCES AS PRODUCERS AND SUBCULTURES
8. Media Fandom and Audience Subcultures
9. Online, Interactive Audiences in a Digital Media World
10. Conclusion: Audience Agency in New Contexts

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