The audience is one of the central elements of media studies. Yet, the
term connotes many different, sometimes contradictory things. This ar
ticle surveys the field of audience studies, noting common concerns in
otherwise disparate bodies of research and theory. It identifies thre
e basic models of the audience: audience-as-mass, audience-as-outcome,
and audience-as-agent. It concludes with a number of recommendations
for future work on the audience.