An audience is a group of people before whom a performance takes place. A common distinction is between the simple and direct audience experience of the theater or a live sporting event and that of being a member of the audience for a performance mediated through television, radio, or film. Understanding how audiences react to what they are watching or consuming is of interest to business and the commercial producers of media, as well as academics. Research into audiences has a long history and has broadly taken quantitative (e.g., surveys and statistical measures of how people consume) or qualitative (e.g., observation or small group discussions) forms.

In democratic societies such as the United States, radio was part of the rise of a consumer society or culture ...