Convened by Professor Sonia Livingstone

Overview

This course examines a variety of social, cultural and psychological issues as they relate to the audiences for mass and social media. It analyses people's everyday engagement with a mediated world.

We will review the history of audiences and audience research from the vantage point of the present digital age, also examining key theories of audiences’ and users’ interpretation, engagement, fandom and creativity in a global and cross-media perspective.

Students will be encouraged to read widely, to forge links with other aspects of media, communications and cultural studies in order to critically examine the positioning of audiences and users within the field, and to debate the nature and future of audiences in a changing media landscape.