In The Citizen Audience, Richard Butsch explores the cultural
and political history of audiences in the United States from the
nineteenth century to the present. He demonstrates that, while
attitudes toward audiences have shifted over time, Americans have
always judged audiences against standards of good citizenship.
From descriptions of tightly packed crowds in early American
theaters to the contemporary reports of distant, anonymous Internet
audiences, Butsch examines how audiences were represented in
contemporary discourse. He explores a broad range of sources on
theater, movies, propaganda, advertising, broadcast journalism, and
much more. Butsch discovers that audiences were characterized
according to three recurrent motifs: as crowds and as isolated
individuals in a mass, both of which were considered bad, and as
publics which were considered ideal audiences. These images were
based on and reinforced class and other social hierarchies. At
times though, subordinate groups challenged their negative
characterization in these images, and countered with their own
interpretations.
A remarkable work of cultural criticism and media history, this
book is essential reading for anyone seeking an historical
understanding of how audiences, media and entertainment function in
the American cultural and political imagination.
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