Interpreting Audiences: The Ethnography of Media Consumption

Reviewing a wide range of work done by qualitative audience researchers over recent years, <strong>Interpreting Audiences</strong> charts the emergence of a critical ethnographic perspective on everyday consumer practice. This outstanding volume is separated into four parts: the debates about media literature&#8242;s power to determine the meanings made by their readers, an examination of the relationships between media genres and social patterns of taste, day-to-day settings and dynamic social situations of reception, and cultural uses and interpretations of communication technologies in the home. Identifying the issues at stake in each of these areas, Shaun Moores then relates advances in audience research to a broader set of questions about the practices and politics of cultural consumption. Assessing the theories of Bourdieu, de Certeau, and others--and drawing on his own investigations--he advances a model of creativity and constraint in everyday life. This accessible text will be an invaluable introduction to the recent work on audiences for students in media, communication, and cultural studies, and a helpful analytical overview for media scholars and researchers.