Audiences

An audience is a group of individuals who are collectively viewed as the people tied to a particular medium or channel. This collective entity can be viewers, readers, or listeners of a message from a sender, as demonstrated in the communication models from the 20th century. The term audience became more prominent following the proliferation of mass media; it has diverse uses as the term has been used to describe an audience that varies widely in its activeness or passiveness. This entry offers a historical overview of the term audience and discusses the uses of the term, variations of the term, and the impact of audiences on organizations’ reputation.