Audience Section

Audience Section logoThis section encourages innovative theoretical, empirical, and methodological approaches to audience research, with the aim of supporting greater understanding of audiences in diverse contexts. 
We invite work that reassesses the theories, methods, and ethical frameworks shaping contemporary audience research. Topics of interest include empirical studies of audiences as knowledge communities, the use and development of ethnographic and digital approaches, and critical reflection on how traditional classifications of audiences (e.g. as masses, publics, or markets) are being reshaped by new forms of participation. 

We welcome research that critically examines whether, how, and to what extent established ‘Western’ theories and methods apply in other cultural, social, and political settings, and that foregrounds alternative epistemologies and locally grounded frameworks. We also welcome intersectional approaches that explore how overlapping systems of inequality shape audience experiences and modes of participation. We encourage studies that examine the material dimensions of audience formation, including data systems, platforms, and algorithmic governance, from global and decolonial perspectives.

Co-Chair: Maria T. Soto-Sanfiel (National University of Singapore) [contact]
Co-Chair: Rafal Zaborowski (King’s College London, United Kingdom) [contact]
Vice-Chair: Maria-Jose Masanet (Universitat de Barcelona, Spain) [contact]
Vice-Chair: Erika Ningxin Wang (The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shenzhen) [contact]​​​​​​​
Vice-Chair: Chikezie E. Uzuegbunam (Rhodes University, South Africa) [contact]

See the list of all current members of the Audience Section.

The Audience Section has a group on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/groups/IAMCR.Audience/

To join the Audience Section, login to your account and select My Sections and Working Groups from the menu. IAMCR members can join up to three sections or working groups.

Audience Section

Call for Proposals 2026

The Audience Section (AUD) invites the submission of abstracts for its 2026 conference, to be held from 28 June to 2 July 2026 in Galway, Ireland, hosted by the University of Galway. The deadline for submission is 3 February 2026 at 23:59 UTC.

IAMCR 2013 - Audience Section - Call for Proposals

The Audience Section invites submissions for its open sessions at the IAMCR to be held in Dublin, Ireland from June 25-29, 2013. The conference theme is:  Crises, ‘Creative Destruction’ and the Global Power and Communication Orders. The Section invites papers within this overall theme and which reflect the Section's interest in new approaches and thinking to audience research in a global context. The Section encourages and aims to inspire greater interest in exploring and understanding audiences in diverse settings, and the contextualized power balances and imbalances that characterize these settings.

Istanbul 2011 - Audience Section Call for Papers

istanbulThe Audience Section invites submissions for its open sessions at the IAMCR to be held in Istanbul (Turkey) 2011 from July 13-17.  The conference theme for 2011 is 'Cities, Creativity, Connectivity'.

The Audience Section invites papers within this overall theme and which reflect the Section’s interest in new approaches and thinking to audience research in the context of the urban, the creative, and the network.  The nature of audiences as knowledge communities and producers, ethnographic approaches to researching them and their embeddedness in everyday life, and the extent to which traditional classifications of audiences (masses, publics and markets) are being challenged by the fluidity and ephemeral nature of virtual and mobile audiences are important concerns.

Braga 2010 - Audience Section Call for Papers

braga_2010The Audience Section invites submissions for its open sessions at the IAMCR to be held in Braga (Portugal) 2010 from July 18-22.  The conference theme for 2010 is Communication and Citizenship. Rethinking Crisis and Change.

The Audience Section invites papers within this overall theme and which reflect the Section’s interest in new approaches and thinking to audience research in the context of citizenship and communication.

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