Rethinking the Media Audience

Pertti Alasuutari is a sociologist, cultural studies scholar, paterfamilias and a highly significant figure in the development of both Finnish and international qualitative research.  His career has gone from strength to strength as regards advancement in Finnish academia, as witnessed by some twenty books, and numerous articles in both Finnish and foreign journals. Yet Professor Alasuutari insists that he did not consciously choose the career of a sociologist. Professor Alasuutari completed his school education in Rovaniemi, Lapland in 1975 and went to study technology at the University of Oulu.  But not for long.  In 1977 he dropped out and began to dream of becoming a journalist, in the meantime doing supply teaching. "In summer I studied journalism at summer university in Lapland and began my military service" His days in the army driving a desk led him to another state agency.  In autumn 1978 the train from the north arrived in Tampere with the 22-year-old on board.  He had gained admission to study sociology. "For the first year I only studied journalism, and didn′t even set foot in the Department of Sociology," grins Professor Alasuutari. Career development In 1983 the Westermarck Society awarded a prize for a master′s thesis to the youthful Alasuutari.  The thesis was entitled "The Realm of Male Freedom".  The ethnographic approach was to describe the alcohol culture of a group of men patronizing a suburban pub.

• PART ONE: THE SHAPE OF AUDIENCE RESEARCHIntroduction - Pertti AlasuutariThree Phases of Reception StudiesAudience and Reception Research in Retrospect - Ann GrayThe Trouble with AudiencesThe Best of both Worlds? Media Audience Research between Rival Paradigms - Kim Schr[sl]oderPART TWO: THE NEW AGENDA: THE INSCRIPTION OF AUDIENCESMedia Figures in Identity Construction - Joke HermesCultural Images of the Media - Pertti AlasuutariLegitimations of Television Programme Policies - Heikki HellmanPatterns of Argumentation and Discursive Convergencies in a Multichannel AgeSlaves of the Ratings Tyranny? Media Images of the Audience - Ingunn HagenThe Implied Audience in Soap Opera Production - John TullochEveryday Rhetorical Strategies among Television ProfessionalsTo Be an Audience - Birgitta H[um]oijer`To Boldly Go...′ - David MorleyThe `Third Generation′ of Reception Studies