First published in 1989. This volume holds a collection of papers to support a project looking at media content in the 1980s and the anticipation of audience behaviours. Some where presented at the conference of the World Association for Public Opinion Research in Montreux, Switzerland in 1987.

The concept of the audience is changing. In the twenty-first century there are novel configurations of user practices and technological capabilities that are altering the way we understand and trust media organizations and representations, how we participate in society, and how we construct our social relations. This book embeds these transformations in a societal, cultural, technological, ideological, economic and historical context, avoiding a naive privileging of technology as the main societal driving force, but also avoiding the media-centric reduction of society to the audiences that are situated within. Audience Transformations provides a platform for a nuanced and careful analysis of the main changes in European communicational practices, and their social, cultural and technological affordances.

In the early 20th century, a new and distinctive concept of the audience rose to prominence. The audience was seen as a mass -- a large collection of people mostly unknown to one another -- that was unified through exposure to media. This construct offered a pragmatic way to map audiences that was relevant to industry, government, and social theorists. In a relatively short period of time, it became the dominant model for studying the audience. Today, it is so pervasive that most people simply take it for granted. Recently, media scholars have reopened inquiry into the meaning of "audience." They question the utility of the mass audience concept, characterizing it as insensitive to differences among audience members inescapably bound up with discredited notions of mass society, or serving only a narrow set of industrial interests. The authors of this volume find that these assertions are often false and unwarranted either by the historical record or by contemporary industry practice. Instead, they argue for a rediscovery of the dominant model by summarizing and critiquing the very considerable body of literature on audience behavior, and by demonstrating different ways of analyzing mass audiences. Further, they provide a framework for understanding the future of the audience in the new media environment, and suggest how the concept of mass audience can illuminate research on media effects, cultural studies, and media policy.

Addressing a multitude of questions and issues surrounding how we use the media, Media Effects and Beyond represents the results of an international research programme into the use and effects of television, video and music. Seeing the viewer not simply as passive object but as a very active subject, the contributors engage with every aspect of children's, adolescents' and families' use of the media - its character, causes and consequences. Topics explored include media and social mobility; family commumication, and consumer lifestyles. Confronting the two traditions of lifestyle research and effects research, Media Effects and Beyond offers a much-needed reconceptualization of both. Written at a time when traditional European public service media systems struggle against a tidal wave of commercial electronic media, this book will be important reading for students of contemporary culture and communications, as well as media policy for decision makers.

Focusing on the meanings, uses, and impacts of new media in childhood, family life, peer culture, and the relation between home and school, this volume sets out to address many of the questions, fears, and hopes regarding the changing place of media in the lives of today's children and young people. The scholars contributing to this work argue that such questions--intellectual, empirical, and policy-related--can be productively addressed through cross-national research. Hence, this volume brings together researchers from 12 countries--Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, the United Kingdom, Israel, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain, Sweden, and Switzerland--to present original and comprehensive findings regarding the diffusion and significance of new media and information technologies among children. Inspired by parallels and difference between the arrival of television in the family home during the 1950s and the present day arrival of new media, the research is based on in-depth interviews and a detailed comparative survey of 6- to 16-year-olds across Europe and in Israel. The result is a comprehensive, detailed, and fascinating account of how these technologies are rapidly becoming central to the daily lives of young people. As a resource for researchers and students in media and communication studies, leisure and cultural studies, social psychology, and related areas, this volume provides crucial insights into the role of media in the lives of children. The findings included herein will also be of interest to policymakers in broadcasting, technology, and education throughout the world.

Mediated messages flood our daily lives, through virtually endless choices of media channels, genres, and content. However, selectivity determines what media messages we attend to and focus on. The present book examines the factors that influence this selectivity. Seminal books on selective media exposure were published in 1960 by Klapper and in 1985 by Zillmann and Bryant. But an integrated update on this research field is much needed, as rigorous selective exposure research has flourished in the new millennium. In the contexts of political communication, health communication, Internet use, entertainment consumption, and electronic games, the crucial question of how individuals choose what content they consume has garnered much attention. The present book integrates theories and empirical evidence from these domains and discusses the related research methodologies. In light of the ever-increasing abundance of media channels and messages, selective exposure has become more important than ever for media impacts. This monograph provides a comprehensive review of the research on selective exposure to media messages, which is at the heart of communication science and media effects. It is required reading for media scholars and researchers, and promises to influence and inspire future research.

Media Diversity: Economics, Ownership, and the FCC provides a detailed analysis of the regulation of diversity and its impact on the structure and practices within the broadcast television industry. As deregulation is quickly changing the media landscape, this volume puts the changing structure of the industry into perspective through the use of an insider's point of view to examine how policy and programming get made. Author Mara Einstein blends her industry experience and academic expertise to examine diversity as a media policy, suggesting that it has been ineffective and is potentially outdated, as study after study has found diversity regulations to be wanting. In addition to reviewing diversity research on the impact of minority ownership, regulation of cable and DBS, duopolies, ownership of multiple networks and cross ownership of media on program content, Einstein considers the financial interest and syndication rules as a case study, due to their profound effects on the structure of the television industry. She also poses questions from an economic perspective on why the FCC regulates structure rather than content. Through the presentation of her research results, she argues persuasively that the consolidation of the media industry does not affect the diversity of entertainment programming, a conclusion with broad ramifications for all media and for future research about media monopolies. This volume serves as a defining work in its examination of the intersection of regulation and economics with media content. It is appropriate as a supplemental text in courses on communication policy, broadcast economic and media management, broadcast programming, political economy of the mass media, and media criticism at the advanced and graduate level. It is also likely to interest broadcast professionals, media policymakers, communication lawyers, and academics. It is a must-read for all who are interested in the media monopoly debate.

The Handbook of Comparative Communication Research aims to provide a comprehensive understanding of comparative communication research. It fills an obvious gap in the literature and offers an extensive and interdisciplinary discussion of the general approach of comparative research, its prospect and problems as well as its applications in crucial sub-fields of communications. The first part of the volume charts the state of the art in the field; the second section introduces relevant areas of communication studies where the comparative approach has been successfully applied in recent years; the third part offers an analytical review of conceptual and methodological issues; and the last section proposes a roadmap for future research.

This book is available as open access through the Bloomsbury Open Access programme and is available on www.bloomsburycollections.com. Historically, alternative media have been viewed as fundamental, albeit at times culturally peripheral, forces in social change. In this book, however, Kenix argues that these media do not uniformly subvert the hierarchies of access that are so central to mainstream media - in fact, their journalistic norms and routines have always been based on the professional standards of the mainstream. Kenix goes on to posit the perception of 'mainstream' and 'alternative' as a misconception. She argues that, although alternative media can - and do - construct distinct alternative communications, they have always existed on the same continuum as the mainstream and the two will continue to converge. Through comparative analysis, this book argues that many alternative and mainstream media are merging to create a continuous spectrum rooted in commercial ideology. Indeed, much of what is now considered alternative media actually draws very little from principles of the independent press, whereas many contemporary mainstream media now use communication techniques more commonly associated with media that do not operate for financial gain. This book puts forward a controversial but convincing argument around the relationship between alternative and mainstream media, drawing on examples from the UK, US, Australia and New Zealand to strengthen and develop the central premise.

The history of drug abuse prevention campaigns suggests limitations in producing measurable changes in behavior. In the past, there was concern over the possibility of such publicity actually encouraging interest in drug use, rather than discouraging such behavior. Although little or no scientifically sound empirical evidence has been found to support such a view, several social science textbooks still refer to this as something of which to be wary. Reviews of early research appear to indicate inadequate methods and a lack of rigor in theory testing. In recent years, however, research in communication and its uses in drug abuse prevention has become considerably more sophisticated, and communication is being used far more effectively. In this book, the editors bring together some of the most successful drug abuse prevention researchers in the country -- along with other experts in this field or in persuasive communication -- to address use and effects of both mass media and interpersonal strategies. This collection illustrates just how far the study of public influence through mass media has come, especially regarding such a vital, relevant issue as drug abuse prevention.