Audiences

Audiences only exist through the interactions of people and technology. With the introduction of 20th century technology such as film, radio and television addressing a mass of people, the media industries aimed to control these mass audiences by aiming new communication forms of media that involved a lot of people, things like soaps. When DVD's came around, the amount of audiences increased and it also allowed the viewers to choose to watch what they wanted, when they wanted, instead of having it chosen for them by the broadcaster.

Ross and Nightingale in 2003 provided 5 dimensions to research into audiences:

1. the people involved
2. their activities
3. the media materials they use
4. the media time in which the engagement with media occurs
5. media power structure

However, they noticed that most studies of audiences cannot include all 5 of these dimensions, therefore during research, there had to be a lesser emphasis on medias contribution to events and more so on the people involved and their activities.