Media Audiences: Effects, Users, Institutions, and Power

John L. Sullivan

Oct 2012 · SAGE Publications

About this ebook

Despite the widespread use of the term "audience" in our popular culture, the meaning of "audience" is complex, and it has undergone significant historical shifts over time. Media Audiences explores the concept of media audiences from four broad perspectives, as "victims" of mass media, as market constructions and commodities, as users of media, and as producers and subcultures of mass media.

About the author

John L. Sullivan is Associate Professor of Media & Communication at Muhlenberg College in Allentown, PA. He earned his B.A. in German and Media Studies from Pomona College and his M.A. and Ph.D. in Communication from the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Pennsylvania. Dr. Sullivan’s research explores the links between media industries and systems of social and economic power. More specifically, he focuses on audience constructions within media organizations, the implementation of U.S. media policies, and the political economy of cultural production. Recently, Dr. Sullivan has begun a longer-term project to study the political economy of free, open source software (F/OSS) movements.