Audiences and Publics: Reflections on the Growing Importance of Mediated Participation

Abstract

As part of the task of understanding how our world has become increasingly media saturated lies a conceptual uncertainty regarding ordinary people. Through much of the 20th century, they were called ‘audiences’ — in academia and in everyday discourse. In relation to specific media, they were — and still are — referred to as ‘readers’, ‘listeners’ or ‘viewers’. In the jargon of contemporary regimes of governance, they are called ‘consumers’ or ‘citizens’. As the media environment diversifies to encompass interactive and networked media, the language of ‘users’ has gained prominence. But although the notion of audience remains the most commonly accepted collective term for people’s relations (now pluralized) to the media in all their forms, this does not bring consensus. Most importantly, audiences are still commonly distinguished from the main collective term for ordinary people in a modern democratic society, that of ‘the public’.