Imagining the audience

In 2006, American journalist Jay Rosen published a statement on behalf of'The People

Formerly Known as The Audience', directed to media producers everywhere. In it, the

'former' audience was described as those who were once:

on the receiving end of a media system that ran one way, in a broadcasting pattern,

with high entry fees and a few firms competing to speak very loudly while the rest of the

population listened in isolation from one another-and who today are not in a situation

like that at all. (Rosen 2006)

Rosen goes on to suggest that people today are using the technology that is at hand

to connect with each other and to produce their own media, including blogs and podcasts. While Rosen's conception of the formerly 'atomised' audience might be

something of an over-statement, his reimaging of people's 'new' relationship with

the media signals the ways in which the internet and related media technologies have

enabled people to participate in the media in new and unprecedented ways.