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The Citizen Audience: Crowds, Publics, and Individuals book cover

1st Edition

The Citizen Audience Crowds, Publics, and Individuals

By Richard Butsch Copyright 2008
200 Pages
by Routledge

196 Pages
by Routledge

200 Pages
by Routledge
Also available as eBook on:
In The Citizen Audience, Richard Butsch explores the cultural and political history of audiences in the United States from the nineteenth century to the present. He demonstrates that, while attitudes toward audiences have shifted over time, Americans have always judged audiences against standards of good citizenship. From descriptions of tightly packed crowds in early American theaters to... Read more
 Introduction: The Politics of Audiences in America  I. Crowds  1. Theater Audiences, Crowds and Publics 2. From Crowds to Masses: Movies, Radio and Advertising II.Publics 3. From Cultivated Individual to Public Citizen 4. Broadcast Publics III. Individuals 5. Mass Media, Mass Man 6. Media Effects and Passive Audiences  7. Boob Tube, Fans and Addicts: Pathological Audiences IV. Epilogue

Biography

Richard Butsch is Professor of Sociology, American Studies, and Film and Media Studies at Rider University. His Making of American Audiences (2000) was awarded the International Communication Association Best Book Award and the American Culture Association Cawelti Book Prize.

'It is indispensable to everyone who cares about public life, politics, and the future. Historians should not miss this quality analysis.' - The Journal of American History

'Richard Butsch...has changed the way I think about audiences.' - Oscar H. Gandy, Jr., AEJMC's Hot Topics in Journalism and Mass Communication

'The Citizen Audience does the important work not only of discussing historically noteworthy conceptions of audiences as crowds, publics, and individuals, but also of pointing out the limits of each theorization of civic audiences.' - Theatre Journal

'Briskly written and offering telling examples, the book provides the first theoretically sophisticated discussion of the primary orientations toward past US audiences for all major media... Highly recommended.' - CHOICE

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