The Future of Audiences

Reviews / Votes

"This book sets an agenda for rethinking audience activity in a digital, "datafied" world. Truly interdisciplinary and collaborative, the interwoven contributions provide innovative theoretical and methodological tools with which to explore audience practices in an increasingly fluid future." (S. Elizabeth Bird, Professor, University of South Florida, USA)

"The Future of Audiences starts from the premise that we can no longer think about audiences (aka citizens, publics, subjects) without also considering the datafication of everything, the rise of platform and algorithmic power, the promised Internet of Things and other technological developments as yet unknown to us. As such, it is long overdue and most welcome. Along with its impressively broad lens and measured and thoughtful tone, this makes the book essential reading to anyone interested in how people engage with media, now and in the future." (Helen Kennedy, Professor of Digital Society, University of Sheffield, UK)

"As social media and platforms have made us all into content producers, is it still useful to retain a notion of 'audiences'? With breath-taking speed, digitization and datafication seem to have made many of the classic questions underpinning audience research obsolete. The editors and authors of this volume have done a magnificent job in both demystifying the tech-hypes and asking the new relevant questions for future audience study. A must read for all of us who find themselves baffled at the intersection of old media, new technologies, big data, smart cities, algorithms, robots and what have you." (Liesbet van Zoonen, Professor, Erasmus University Rotterdam, Netherlands)

"Many fear that the algorithmic turn in journalism and cultural production generally evacuates the site of the audience. But, as Das and Ytre-Arne make clear in this skilfully edited volume that distils the research of 22 young European researchers, the audience is still there and we need to listen to them. This fresh and lively book offers many insights into those ordinary things we do as we interact with platforms, while keeping a close eye on the bigger issues: literacy and engagement, the politics of platforms and the elusive possibility of a European public sphere. An exciting read!" (Nick Couldry, Professor, London School of Economics and Political Science, UK)

"In the face of the most recent and the still looming media innovations that foster-and at the same require-sophisticated practices on the users' side the term 'audiences' sounds rather old-fashioned, a remainder from the mass media era. This book, a collective effort of young researchers with its parts being particularly well interconnected and integrated, tells another story: it demonstrates that there is a future of audiences-and a future of audience research!" (Uwe Hasebrink, Professor, Hans Bredow Institute for Media Research, University of Hamburg, Germany)