This reading is all about media audiences, how these audiences have developed over time, and challenges facing traditional audiences when adapting to 21st century audiences. The challenges include technological challenges, social/spatial challenges, and experiential challenges.
An example of a technological aspect would be the consumption of traditional forms of media via different means. For instance, listening to the radio on the internet, checking email on blackberries, etc. This is described as an “interlocking between old and new media,” and, to me, highlights one of the pervasive ideas that this class promotes.
The social/spatial aspect of the reading describes specifically how audiences have evolved over time. The three stages are the simple audience, mass audience, and diffused audience. The simple audience represents the earliest era of audiences, and was prevalent before there was really media. Mass audiences were most prevalent during the late 19th to early 20th century – I think of the American industrial revolution, mass immigration, and the Roaring 20’s to describe this era. We are currently in the age of the ‘diffused audience’. These audiences have access to almost limitless forms of media.
The experiential challenges, as I understand, are a bit more confusing. They include how an audiences EXPERIENCE has evolved. The best example is the DotComGuy. Through the internet, he completes every task needed to live a normal life – buys groceries, makes money, engages in recreation. In a previous era, this DotComGuy did not exist; no form of audience every EXPERIENCED it like this.
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