Table Of Content*
I
The Audience Studies Reader
Has political propaganda ever been effective? To what extent do African American families
interpret their favourite television show differently from their white neighbours? Are romance
novels and teenage magazines reactionary fantasies, or can they provide women with an impor¬
tant space of their own?
The Audience Studies Reader brings together key writings exploring questions of reception,
interpretation and interactivity, reprinting forgotten pieces and combining key essays with new
research. Beginning with a general introduction to the Reader, each extract is placed in its histor¬
ical context with specially written Part introductions and annotated suggestions for further reading.
Organised thematically and chronologically, the seven Parts address:
• Paradigm shift - from 'effects'to 'uses and gratifications'
• Moral panic and censorship
• Reading as resistance and the active audience
• The spectator and the audience - shifts in screen theory
• The fan audience
• Female audiences - gender and reading
• Interpretive communities - nation and ethnicity
• Internet audiences, convergence and increased levels of interactivity.
The Audience Studies Reader provides a guide to historical approaches and suggests new ways
of looking at the relationship between media texts and those who receive, consume and interpret
them.
Essays by: Theodor Adorno, Ien Ang, Camille Bacon-Smith, Martin Barker, Bernard Berelson,
Jacqueline Bobo, Eunice Cooper, Dawn H. Currie, Michel de Certeau, Helen Dinerman, Rebecca
Dobash, Russell Dobash, Barbara Ehrenreich, John Fiske, Hazel Gaudet, Marie Gillespie, Sara
Gwenllian-Jones, Miriam Hansen, Elizabeth Hess, Richard Hoggart, Gloria Jacobs, Henry Jenkins,
Sut Jhally, Elihu Katz, Paul F. Lazarsfeld, Justin Lewis, Tamar Liebes, Angela McRobbie, Robert
K. Merton, David Morley, David Muggleton, Laura Mulvey, Janice Radway, Philip Schlesinger,
Esther Sonnet, Jackie Stacey, C. Kay Weaver, Fredric Wertham, Charles Winick, Gregory Woods.
Will Brooker is Assistant Professor in Communication at Richmond, the American International
University in London. His books include Batman Unmasked and Using the Force.
Deborah Jermyn is Senior Lecturer in Film Studies at Southampton Institute. She is the
co-editor of The Cinema of Kathryn Bigelow: Hollywood Transgressor.
Digitized by the Internet Archive
in 2017 with funding from
Kahle/Austin Foundation
https://archive.org/details/audiencestudiesrOOwill
The
Audience Studies
Reader
Edited by
Will Brooker and Deborah Jermyn
Routledge
Taylor &. Francis Croup
LONDON AND NEW YORK
First published 2003
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon, 0X14 4RN
Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada
by Routledge
270 Madison Ave, New York, NY 10016
Reprinted 2006 (twice), 2007
Transferred to Digital Printing 2008
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
© 2003 Will Brooker and Deborah Jermyn for selection and editorial matter
© 2003 individual chapters, the contributors
Typeset in Bell Gothic and Bembo by M Rules, London
Printed and bound in Great Britain by
TJI Digital, Padstow, Cornwall
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced
or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means,
now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording,
or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in
writing from the publishers.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
The audience studies reader / [edited by] Will Brooker and Deborah Jermyn.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
1. Motion picture audiences. 2. Motion picture audiences - Psychology.
3. Television viewers. 4. Television viewers - Psychology. 5. Reading.
I. Brooker, Will, 1970- II. Jermyn, Deborah, 1970-
PN1995.9.A8 A93 2002
302.23'43 - dc21 2002031688
i
ISBN10: 0-415-25434-5 (hbk)
ISBN10: 0-415-25435-3 (pbk)
ISBN13: 978-0-415-25434-2 (hbk)
ISBN13: 978-0-415-25435-9 (pbk)
Contents
Notes on contributors ix
Acknowledgements xvi
Introduction 1
'it's out there . . . somewhere': locating the audience
FOR THE AUDIENCE STUDIES READER
PART ONE
Paradigm shift: from ‘effects7 to ‘uses and gratifications’ 5
1 Paul F. Lazarsfeld, Bernard Berelson and Hazel Gaudet 13
THE people's choice: how the voter makes up his mind in a
PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN
2 Robert K. Merton 19
mass persuasion: the social psychology of a war bond drive
3 Eunice Cooper and Helen Dinerman 27
ANALYSIS OF THE FILM DON'T BE A SUCKER'. A STUDY IN
COMMUNICATION
4 Charles Winick 37
TENDENCY SYSTEMS AND THE EFFECTS OF A MOVIE DEALING
WITH A SOCIAL PROBLEM
VI CONTENTS
PART TWO
Mora! panic and censorship; the vulnerable audience 51
5 T. W. Adorno 55
CULTURE INDUSTRY RECONSIDERED
6 Fredrsc Wertham 61
SEDUCTION OF THE INNOCENT
7 Richard Hoggart 67
THE USES OF LITERACY
8 Martin Barker 74
THE NEWSON REPORT: A CASE STUDY IN 'COMMON SENSE7
PART THREE
Reading as resistance; the active audience 91
9 David Morley 95
THE NATIONWIDE AUDIENCE
10 Michel de Certeau 105
THE PRACTICE OF EVERYDAY LIFE
11 John Fiske 112
UNDERSTANDING POPULAR CULTURE
12 Gregory Woods 117
'WE'RE HERE, WE'RE QUEER AND WE'RE NOT GOING CATALOGUE
SHOPPING'
PART FOUR
The spectator and the audience: shifts in screen theory 127
13 Laura Mulvey 133
VISUAL PLEASURE AND NARRATIVE CINEMA
14 Miriam Hansen 143
BABEL AND BABYLON: S P E C TATO R S H I P IN AMERICAN SILENT FILM
15 Jackie Stacey 150
STAR GAZING! HOLLYWOOD CINEMA AND FEMALE SPECTATORSHIP
16 Philip Schlesinger, Rebecca Dobash, Russell Dobash and
C. Kay Weaver 159
WOMEN VIEWING VIOLENCE
CONTENTS vii
PART FIVE
The fan audience: cult texts and community 167
17 Henry Jenkins 171
'OUT OF THE CLOSET AND INTO THE UNIVERSE7 I QUEERS AND
STAR TREK
18 Barbara Ehrenreich, Elizabeth Hess and Gloria Jacobs 180
beatlemania: girls just want to have fun
19 Sara Gwenllian-Jones 185
HISTORIES, FICTIONS AND XENA.’ WARRIOR PRINCESS
20 Camille Bacon-Smith 192
SUFFERING AND SOLACE! THE GENRE OF PAIN
21 David Muggieton 199
INSIDE SUBCULTURE! THE POSTMODERN MEANING OF STYLE
PART SIX
Female audiences: gender and reading 213
22 Janice Radway 219
READING THE ROMANCE! WOMEN, PATRIARCHY AND POPULAR
LITERATURE
23 len Ang 226
LIVING ROOM WARS! RETHINKING AUDIENCES FOR A
POSTMODERN WORLD
24 Angela McRobbie 235
FEMINISM AND YOUTH CULTURE
25 Dawn H. Currie 243
GIRL talk: adolescent magazines and their readers
26 Esther Sonnet 254
'"just a book", she said . . reconfiguring ethnography
FOR THE FEMALE READERS OF SEXUAL FICTION
PART SEVEN
Interpretive communities: nation and ethnicity 275
27 Sut Jhally and Justm Lewis 279
ENLIGHTENED RACISM! THE COSBY SHOW, AUDIENCES AND THE
MYTH OF THE AMERICAN DREAM
viii CONTENTS
28 Tamar Liebes and Elihu Katz 287
THE EXPORT OF MEANING! CROSS-CULTURAL READINGS OF DALLAS
29 Jacqueline Bobo 305
THE COLOR PURPLE! BLACK WOMEN AS CULTURAL READERS
30 Marie Gillespie 315
TELEVISION, ETHNICITY AND CULTURAL CHANGE
31 Conclusion: overflow and audience 322
References 335
Index 345
