Has political propaganda ever been effective? To what extent do AfricanAmerican families interpret their favorite TV show differently from their whiteneighbors?... » 

Has political propaganda ever been effective? To what extent do AfricanAmerican families interpret their favorite TV show differently from their whiteneighbors? Are romance novels and teenage magazines reactionary fantasies or dothey provide women with an important space of their own?The Audience Studies Reader brings together key writings exploring questionsof reception and interpretation reprinting forgotten pieces and combining keyessays with new research. Beginning with a general introduction to theReader each extract is placed in its historical context with speciallywritten section prefaces and suggestions for further reading.Organized chronologically and thematically sections address the paradigmshiftfrom effects to uses and gratifications moral panic and censorshipthe active audience and reading as resistance shifts in screen theory thespectator and the audience the fan and the audience gendering the audienceinternet audiences convergence andincreased levels of interactivity andnation and ethnicity. The conclusion discusses the effects of Internetoverflow and the increased level of interactivity it seems to offer.The Audience Studies Reader provides a guide to historical approaches andsuggests new ways of looking at the relationship between media texts and thosewho receive consume and interpret them. «