What does it mean to be “an audience”? From the original idea of audience established in ancient societies to the modern notions that take into account the dynamics through which people come together into groups as well as the development of new forms of spectatorship, the term has been employed with different nuances. What is interesting to observe is the increase in complexity that has affected the definition of the word over the years. In this chapter, I approach the changes in the meaning of the term as being strictly dependent on the historical contexts in which the word has been employed. This overview is instrumental to the research project, as it provides the theoretical basis upon which the project is built, and helps to explain my project's contribution to scholarship.

In the first section, I provide a brief introduction to the evolution of audience theories and explain why it is still necessary to study audiences today; the transformations in audience configuration and behaviors become symptomatic of the social and cultural changes that apply to modern societies at a general level. In “The Concept of the Audience,” I present a more detailed discussion of the ways in which the idea of audience has been conceptualized at different stages. I refer to the initial idea of audience as synonymous with passive individuals who are powerless under the harmful influence of mass media (media effects theory) and, subsequently, to the modern theories about audience members and their acknowledged capacity to approach media texts from a critical perspective (interpretation theory and audience reception studies). The theoretical framework of the audience as composed of active users who are able to interpret and use media texts is outlined in the next section, through the presentation of the main studies that have examined the nature of audience agency in consuming media programs. “Audiences and New Media” extends this perspective on audiences to discuss the significance of audience practices in the contemporary era. At this point, the concept of “convergence culture” (Jenkins, Convergence Culture 2) provides my argument with the cultural and technological background that allows me to explain the significant transformations in the current media landscape, as relevant to audience practices.