The Handbook Of Media Audiences

This handbook offers a comprehensive overview of the complexity and diversity of audience studies in the advent of digital media. Details the study of audiences and how it is changing in relation to digital media Recognizes and appreciates valuable traditional approaches and identifies how they can be applied to, and evolve with, the changing media world Offers diverse perspectives from which being an audience, theorizing audiences, researching audiences, and doing audience research are approached today Argues that the field works best by identifying particular 'audience problems' and applying the best theories and research methods available to solving them Includes contributions from some of the most outstanding international scholars in the field

In an interactive and densely connected world, transnational communication has become a central feature of everyday life. Taking account of a variety of media formats and different regions of the world, Adrian Athique provides a much-needed critical exploration of conceptual approaches to media reception on a global scale. Engaging both the historical foundations and contemporary concerns of audience research, Athique prompts us to reconsider our contemporary media experience within a transnational frame. In the process, he provides valuable insights on culture and belonging, power and imagination. Beautifully written and strongly argued, Transnational Audiences: Media Reception on a Global Scale will be essential reading for students and teachers of global media, culture and communications.

Bringing together the perspectives of more than 40 internationally acclaimed authors, The Handbook of Global Media Research explores competing methodologies in the dynamic field of transnational media and communications, providing valuable insight into research practice in a globalized media landscape. Provides a framework for the critical debate of comparative media research Posits transnational media research as reflective of advanced globalization processes, and explores its roles and responsibilities Articulates the key themes and competing methodological approaches in a dynamic and developing field Showcases the perspectives and ideas of 30 leading internationally acclaimed scholars Offers a platform for the discussion of crucial issues from a variety of theoretical, methodical and practical viewpoints

Visit the Understanding Media series microsite. â¬SThis book provides a comprehensive, up-to-date overview of research and debate about media audiences, written by some of the leading scholars in the field. It covers a wide range of media genres, from TV news to soaps and reality shows, as well as addressing broader issues, for example to do with globalisation, the social contexts of media use and the power of the media. This is a state-of-the-art textbook, which provides students with the critical tools they need in order to evaluate existing research, and to undertake their own.⬠David Buckingham, Institute of Education, Londonâ¬SThe book is important for the broad understanding of media audiences it provides, and for the richness of the learning experience available through the activities and reading extracts that guide the student experience. It is an excellent introduction to the history and traditions of audience research.⬠Virginia Nightingale, University of Western Syney, AustraliaThis book offers an engaging and accessible introduction to key debates in audience studies, drawing on a range of historical, contemporary and cross-cultural case studies. The book includes chapters on: different approaches to researching audiences and how they link to policy and political agendas; how media technologies shape our sensory and social experience; how the media address us as media publics and affect democratic processes; what ethnographic approaches tell us about audiences in different parts of the world; how new forms of interactivity and mobility shift the relations of power between media consumers and producers.The authors take students through these and other topics, using readings from key research and providing carefully designed student activities. Case studies range from the sensational experiences of early twentieth-century film audiences to the activities of reality TV viewers, from the audiences for Indian religious epics to Israeli news viewersâ¬" interpretations of news about Palestine.

Media and communication research is a diverse and stimulating field of inquiry, not only in subject matter but also in purposes and methodologies. Over the past twenty years, and in step with the contemporary shift toward trans-disciplinarity, Media Studies has rapidly developed a very significant body of theory and evidence. Media Studies is here to stay and scholars in the discipline have a vital contribution to make. The SAGE Handbook of Media Studies surveys and evaluates the theories, practices, and future of the field. Editor John Downing and associate editors Denis McQuail, Philip Schlesinger, and Ellen Wartella have brought together a team of international contributors to provide a varied critical analysis of this intensely interesting field of study. The Handbook offers a comprehensive review within five interconnected areas: humanistic and social scientific approaches; global and comparative perspectives; the relation of media to economy and power; media users; and elements in the media mosaic ranging from media ethics to advertising, from popular music to digital technologies, and from Hollywood and Bollywood to alternative media. The contributors to The Handbook are from Australia, Austria, Britain, Canada, France, Guatemala, India, Japan, the Netherlands, South Korea, and the United States. Each contributor offers a unique perspective on topics broad in scope. The Handbook is an ideal resource for university media researchers, for faculty developing new courses and revising curricula, and for graduate courses in media studies. It is also a necessary addition to any academic library.

Using examples from the US, Europe and Asia,this collection presentsempirical studies of print, recorded music, movies, radio, television and the Internetto reveal both how media structure public spheresand how people use media to participate in the public sphere.

This work takes both a chronological and a thematic approach, in order to explore the ways in which the audience as an analytical concept has changed, as well as examining the relationships which audiences have with texts and the ways in which they exert their power as consumers.

Part III emphasizes the various factors that influence the critical functions of message selection and processing central to a host of mass media application contexts.

Focusing on the electronic media--television, radio, and the Internet--Audience Economics bridges a substantial gap in the literature by providing an integrated framework for understanding the various businesses involved in generating and selling audiences to advertisers. Philip M. Napoli presents original research in order to answer several key questions: * How are audiences manufactured, valued, and sold? * How do advertisers and media firms predict the behavior of audiences? * How has the process of measuring audiences evolved over time? * How and why do advertisers assign different values to segments of the media audience? * How does audience economics shape media content? Examining the relationship between the four principal actors in the audience marketplace--advertisers, media firms, consumers, and audience measurement firms--Napoli explains the ways in which they interact with and mutually depend on each other. He also analyzes recent developments, such as the introduction of local people meters by Nielsen Media Research and the establishment and evolution of audience measurement systems for the Internet. A valuable resource for academics, students, policymakers, and media professionals, Audience Economics keeps pace with the rapid changes in media and audience-measurement technologies in order to provide a thorough understanding of the unique dynamics of the audience marketplace today.

This essential volume brings together the work of internationally-renowned researchers, each experts in their field, in order to capture the diversity of children and young people′s media cultures around the world. Why are the media such a crucial part of children′s daily lives? Are they becoming more important, more influential, and in what ways? Or does a historical perspective reveal how past media have long framed children′s cultural horizons or, perhaps, how families - however constituted - have long shaped the ways children relate to media? In addressing such questions, the contributors present detailed empirical cases to uncover how children weave together diverse forms and technologies to create a rich symbolic tapestry which, in turn, shapes their social relationships. At the same time, many concerns - even public panics - arise regarding children′s engagement with media, leading the contributors also to inquire into the risky or problematic aspects of today′s highly mediated world. Deliberately selected to represent as many parts of the globe as possible, and with a commitment to recognizing both the similarities and differences in children and young people′s lives - from China to Denmark, from Canada to India, from Japan to Iceland, from - the authors offer a rich contextualization of children′s engagement with their particular media and communication environment, while also pursuing cross-cutting themes in terms of comparative and global trends. Each chapter provides a clear orientation for new readers to the main debates and core issues addressed, combined with a depth of analysis and argumentation to stimulate the thinking of advanced students and established scholars. Since children and young people are a focus of study across different disciplines, the volume is thoroughly multi-disciplinary. Yet since children and young people are all too easily neglected by these same disciplines, this volume hopes to accord their interests and concerns they surely merit.