The Labour of Media Use : The Two Active Audiences

• The 'active audience' has theoretically been conceptualised from two perspectives: in political economy, from Smythe to Andrejevic it is suggested that television audiences work for the networks while watching. Although contested it has survived among television scholars, also feeding into the discussion on web surveillance techniques. The other conceptualisation comes from reception theory, where the interpretive work by audiences is seen as resulting in identities, taste cultures and social difference. This paper relates these perspectives by considering audiences as involved in two production-consumptions circuits: [1] the viewer activities produces social difference (identities, cultural meaning) in a social and cultural economy, which is then [2] made the object of productive consumption as part of the activities of the media industry, the end product being economic profit. The paper argues for the relevance of analysing these as separate circuits, and that recent debate on the active audience has misrecognised the difference.

Subject headings

SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP  -- Medie- och kommunikationsvetenskap (hsv//swe)

SOCIAL SCIENCES  -- Media and Communications (hsv//eng)

Keyword

Kritisk kulturteori

Critical and Cultural Theory

Publication and Content Type

ref (subject category)

kon (subject category)