Audiences: A Sociological Theory of Performance and Imagination

`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.

Table of Contents:
Changing Audiences Changing Paradigms of Research Forms of the Audience Spectacle and Narcissism Imagination and Resources Fans and Enthusiasts The Spectacle/Performance Paradigm Methods, Issues and Theories

About the Author :
Born 1944. Educated at Oxford University (B.A. in Politics, Philosophy and Economics) and London School of Economics (M.Sc. in Sociology). Ph.D. in Sociology from the University of Lancaster. Appointed in 1968 as a Research Officer in a Unit specializing in town planning research in the Bartlett School of Architecture at University College, London. Moved to a lectureship in sociology at the University of Lancaster in 1970, then Professor of Sociology and subsequently Deputy Vice-Chancellor from 1995 to 2004. Now retired and Emeritus Professor. 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.

Review :
`From a theoretical point of view, they provide a valuable update on how recent debates within cultural studies should alter the direction of critical audience research.... The considerable breadth of subject matter covered in this book is organized logically and presented in extremely readable prose.... The authors also provide a valuable service in differentiating among audience activity.... 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 `This book brings the study of the audience into the centre of the study of electronic mediation, and the study of electronic mediation into the centre of the study of society and culture. In so doing it captures something of the inescapable intensity of the media in the late twentieth century in ways which are both accessible and provocative. It should be widely read′ - Roger Silverstone `Timely and refreshing....the authors successfully assert is that to understand audiences both method and theory must take account of wider social processes and not to isolate media use from the complex rhythms, patterns and practices of everyday life. In locating audiences within this wider framework they have laid down a formidable challenge for future research′ - Framework