This book provides a theoretical assessment of audience research issues. A host of contributions from French-speaking scholars question and analyse the participatory turn in media and communication research that has emerged over the last 15 years. This collection brings together high-quality theoretical and empirical contributions in order to promote scientific discussions and debates between English- and French-speaking academics. Ségur contextualizes the paradigmatic evolution of media communication, explaining how participation has become an imperative in media devices. In the first section authors explore, often critically, types of participatory media formats such as radio, television, and the internet. In the second section, authors focus on the participatory performances of audiences in public media spaces. Analysis is made of online forums, the phenomenon of lurking, and of urban spaces. This book provides viewpoints from a range of disciplines including social anthropology,information and communication sciences, and media studies.

Outlines a French approach to current debates in audience research, encouraging dialogue between French-speaking and English-speaking scholars Examines the changing facets of audiences in the context of cultural convergence Questions how individuals build their identity as members of a public through participatory practices

Autorentext

Céline Ségur is Associate Professor of Information and Communication Sciences at the University of Lorraine, France. She is a member of the Centre de recherche sur les mediations. Her research area is media reception and audiences.

Inhalt

1. French Perspectives on Media, Participation and Audiences: Introduction.- 2. Harnessing the Potential of the Demotic Turn to Authoritarian Ends: Caller participation and weaponized communication on US conservative talk radio programs.- 3. From Lay Person to TV Celebrity? Televising the sovereign people in the French debate programme Parole de candidat (TF1, 2012).- 4. The people during the presidential elections on French TV: Announcement of the election results and audience representations.- 5. From televised media space to Internet hypermedia: How much room is there for the opinions of ordinary people?.- 6. Television audiences and digital social networks: In between an experience and a commitment.- 7. Online communication of African Francophone women dealing with infertility: Practices in the face of different asymmetric relationships.- 8. Not all fans leave a trace: The case of a digital comic serial inspired by television series.-9. The contingencies of becoming public: Lessons from an unachieved revolution.