This paper explores three audience models which have traditionally animated American communications policy: the Effects Model, in which the audience is victim; the Marketplace Model, in which the audience is consumer; and the Commodity Model, in which the audience is a coin of exchange. In separate sections, the models are defined, their varying…

Surveys the field of audience studies, noting common concerns. Identifies models of the audience: audience as mass, audience as outcome, and audience as agent. Recommends exploiting the interdisciplinary potential, employing an enlightened empiricism, considering audiences as collectives as well as individuals, abandoning the active/passive…

Discusses how new video media affect patterns of exposure to television and explores how these changing patterns of consumption may be related to larger issues of the medium's social impact. (JD)