ABSTRACT

Despite its increasing attention for audiences, journalism studies remains an inherently production-focused discipline. Consequently, studying the perspective of audiences tends to automatically start from questions relevant for and benefitting the news industry. In this introduction, we argue for a more radical audience turn that pushes journalism studies forward beyond normative and industry concerns, and starts from the perspective of audiences themselves. We formulate four constructive starting points for advancing the audience turn in journalism: 1) further decentering journalism by also focusing on non-news and employing non-media centric approaches; 2) broadening who counts as audience by including audiences considered commercially unattractive; 3) shifting the focus from what counts as news use to what is experienced as informative; and 4) positing audiences as active agents. However, such a radical audience turn also creates fundamental dilemmas for journalism studies, raising questions about the field’s object of study, the spaces and contexts of news use considered, and the objectives of journalism studies as a field. With this special issue, we call for further reflections on how news and informational needs may be conceptualized from an audience perspective and how to theorize what this means for journalism’s role in society and everyday life.

摘要

尽管新闻研究越来越受到观众的关注，但它本质上仍然是一门以生产为中心的学科。因此，研究受众的观点往往会自动从与新闻行业相关并有益于新闻行业的问题开始。在本介绍中，我们主张一种更激进的受众转向，推动新闻研究超越规范和行业关注，并从受众本身的角度出发。我们为推动新闻业的受众转向制定了四个建设性的起点：1）通过同时关注非新闻和采用非媒体为中心的方法来进一步分散新闻业；2) 通过包括被认为在商业上没有吸引力的观众来扩大观众的范围；3) 将焦点从被视为新闻用途的内容转移到被体验为提供信息的内容；4) 将观众定位为积极的代理人。然而，如此激进的受众转向也给新闻研究带来了根本性的困境，引发了关于该领域的研究对象、所考虑的新闻使用空间和背景以及新闻研究作为一个领域的目标的问题。在本期特刊中，我们呼吁进一步思考如何从受众的角度来概念化新闻和信息需求，以及如何理论化这对新闻在社会和日常生活中的作用意味着什么。