The audience

The audience is one of the central elements of media studies. Yet, the term connotes many different, sometimes contradictory things. This article surveys the field of audience studies, noting common concerns in otherwise disparate bodies of research and theory. It identifies three basic models of the audience: audience‐as‐mass, audience‐as‐outcome, and audience‐as‐agent. It concludes with a number of recommendations for future work on the audience.