Active Audiences (read all about it)

Following Mats Ekström's lecture in Tampere in September we briefly discussed the question of whether the roles of spectators and listeners could rightfully be considered passive ones. Mats tended to oppose this idea and has kindly supplied me with a list of references concerning active media audiences (and has agreed to my passing it on to the rest of you). Please feel free to make comments or add titles to the list. Here it is:

- Sturken, Marita & Lisa Cartwright (2001) Practices of Looking. An Introduction to Visual Culture. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

- Schwartz, Vanessa (1998) Spectacular Realities. Early Mass Culture in Fin-de-Siècle Paris.
University of California Press.

- Abercrombie, Nicholas & Brian Longhurst (1998) Audiences. A Sociological Theory of Performance and Imagination. London: Sage.

- Alasuutari, Pertti (1999) Rethinking the Media Audience. London: Sage.


And finally (in Norwegian):

- Hagen, Ingunn (1998) Medias Publikum. Oslo: Gyldendal Norsk Forlag.


The notions of spectators and listeners came up with reference to Mats Ekström's article "Information, Story-telling and Attractions: Tv-journalism in three Modes of Communication". Media, Culture and Society 22/4 (2000): 465-492 (cf. also 'TABLE 3: Roles in different modes of communication' in the handout, if you've still got it).