Table of Contents

Notes on contributors
Foreword
Acknowledgements
Introduction

Part 1: The study of active audiences

Movie leaders
Viewer's reactions
utilization of mass communication by the individual
Encoding/decoding >br>News we can use: An audience perspective on the tabloidisation of news in the United States
The opinion polls: Still biased to Blair

Part 2: Audience communities, segments and commodities

Good and bad practice in focus group research
All ears: Radio, reception and discourses of disability
Transnational communications and Diaspora communities
Children and television: A critical overview of the research
Ratings analysis in advertising
Heads of household and ladies of the house: Gender, genre and broadcast ratings 1929-1990

Part 3: Interactive audiences: Fans, cultural production and new media

Improvising Elvis, Marilyn and Mickey Mouse
Tune in tomorrow
Stories of places and ways of being
Gamers as co-creators: Enlisting the virtual audience - A report from the netface
Interactive audiences?

Index.

About the Author

Virginia Nightingale is Associate Professor in the School of Communication, Design and Media at the University of Western Sydney, Australia. Her research focuses on audience theory and research practice. She is the author of Studying Audiences: The Shock of the Real (1996).

Karen Ross is Reader in Mass Communications at Coventry University, UK. She has published extensively in the broad area of audience identities. Her recent books include Mapping the Margins (2003), Women, Politics, Media (2002) and Black and White Media (1996).