Desperately Seeking the Audience

by Ien Ang

Ang's ethnographic perspective on the television audience gives new insights into our television culture, with the audience seen not as an object to be controlled, but as an active social subject.

Genres: Nonfiction

216 pages, Paperback

First published March 21, 1991

About the author

May Ien Ang is Professor of Cultural Studies at the Institute for Culture and Society at the University of Western Sydney (UWS), Australia, where she was the founding director and is currently an ARC Professorial Fellow. She is also a Fellow of the Australian Academy of the Humanities.

Born in Java, but raised and educated in the Netherlands, Ang received her Doctorate in the Social and Cultural Sciences, from the University of Amsterdam in 1990. She is among the global leaders in cultural studies. Her work focuses on media and cultural consumption, the study of media audiences, identity politics, nationalism and globalisation, migration and ethnicity, and issues of representation in contemporary cultural institutions. In 2001 she was awarded the Centenary Medal 'for service to Australian society and the humanities in cultural research'.

Her writing encompasses contemporary Asia and the changing new world (dis)order, Australia-Asia relations, as well as theoretical and methodological issues. She is a prominent public commentator in Australia and a member of the Council of the Australian Academy of the Humanities.

Reviews

[Jasbeer Musthafa · Rating 5 out of 5]

An exceptional ethnographic exploration of the television culture and the audience. It deconstructs audience from being mere ‘objects under control’ into defining as active social subjects. Must read for students of media/cultural studies.

[Jack · Rating 3 out of 5]

A nice look at how the television audience is seen, understood, and represented.