The Double Hermeneutics of Audience Research

Abstract

Audience research interprets a lived reality that has already been interpreted by the recipients of media, and which may be reinterpreted through the intervention of research. This article explores the interplay between changing media environments and changing conceptions of audiences. In the digital media environment, audiences are active users of media, and media actively use the bit trail that users leave behind. To account for the reconfigured roles of media and audiences, I propose a renewed emphasis on the diverse flows of communication on digital platforms, specifically the metacommunication that yields metadata. Metacommunication is key to reinterpreting what audiences do with digital media and what digital media, in turn, do to audiences.