Exciting moments in audience research – past, present and future

Abstract

A new and exciting phase in so-called audience research … may be opening up' (Hall 1980: 131).Fifteen years ago, following a careful look at our field, two sociologists offered a doubly articulated account that attracted considerable attention (Abercrombie and Longhurst 1998).First, they told the story of changing audiences, from the simple, physically co-located yet carefully managed theatre and concert hall audiences and the mass audiences of first print media and then broadcasting, to the diffused audience in the modern complex and globalized media landscape.This history can be deepened by drawing on the work of others.It constitutes a kind of fusion of Butch's (2000) fascinating account of the perennially contested nature of active versus passive audiences across the centuries and Thompson's (1995) sociological analysis of the shift in modernity from interpersonal through mass to quasi-mediated communication.Noting that the phases (simple, mass, diffused) are conceived as cumulative rather than substitutive (e.g.today we have live comedy club, prime time comedy shows and peer exchange of comic clips on YouTube), Abercrombie and Longhurst's sketch provided a promising starting point, which has been taken forward in various ways by the rich and diverse contributions to this volume.Abercrombie and Longhurst's second account attracted more attention in audience studies.Overlaying their history of how audiences have changed, they articulated a

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