Understanding Media Users (eBook)

Tony Wilson is Associate Professor, Faculty of Economics and Business, at University Malaysia Sarawak, and Associate Research Fellow, Global Cities Institute, at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology.

Acknowledgments vi

Introduction 1

1 A Passive Audience? Structuralist and Effects Studies 7

2 The Active Audience: Speaking Subjects 29

3 Perceiving is Believing: From Phenomenology to Media User Theory 46

4 Meanings Are Ours: Reader Response and Audience Studies 59

5 The Projecting Audience: From Cinema to Cellphone 74

6 A Phenomenology of Phone Use: Pervasive Play and the Ludification of Culture 94

7 Selling on Screen: From Media Hermeneutics to Marketing Communication 112

8 Buying Brandscapes: A Phenomenology of Perception and Purchase 130

9 Consumer-Citizens: Crossing Cultures in Cyberspace 146

Conclusion: Media User Theory: Going Beyond Accumulation of Audiences 173

References 176

Index 204

"I admire Wilson's synthetic approach to audience study and
the attention he gives to the burgeoning field of cell phones,
computer screens, and video games since in the past most audience
study material has been focused on film and television."
(PsycCRITIQUES, March 2009)

"As a pioneering study of phenomenological media analysis
... Wilson's book serves as a useful introduction to this
emerging field of research, as well as offering a brief and
scathing overview of the wider context of audience studies in which
his work is situated. As such, the book will be of interest to
scholars from a wide variety of fields and disciplines." (M/C
Reviews, February 2009)

"In this lively and original book, Tony Wilson captures the many
critical claims and contestations that have shaped the field of
audience research, bringing the story up to date with a
phenomenological analysis of mass and personalised media users
across the globe."

-Professor Sonia Livingstone, London School of
Economics and Political Science

"Tony Wilson is one of the pioneers of phenomenological media
analysis. In this book, he develops a distinctive media-user
theory, engaging with important issues of philosophy and
method."

-Professor Shaun Moores, Centre for Research in Media
and Cultural Studies, University of Sunderland