Product Description: Using examples from the US, Europe and Asia,this collection presentsempirical studies of print, recorded music, movies, radio, television and the Internetto reveal both how media structure public spheresand how people use media to participate in the public sphere.

Product Description: In The Citizen Audience, Richard Butsch explores the cultural and political history of audiences in the United States from the nineteenth century to the present. He demonstrates that, while attitudes toward audiences have shifted over time, Americans have always judged audiences against standards of good citizenship...read more

Product Description: In The Making of American Audiences, Richard Butsch provides a comprehensive survey of American entertainment audiences from the Colonial period to the present. Providing coverage of theater, opera, vaudeville, minstrelsy, movies, radio and television, he examines the evolution of audience practices as each genre supplanted another as the primary popular entertainment...read more (view table of contents, read Amazon.com's description)

Product Description: During the nineteenth century, leisure industries emerged to provide recreation and entertainment to Americans of all classes. Entertainment has become a multi-billion dollar industry. The essays collected here explore the transformation this wrought in leisure and analyze its effects on class relations in American society...read more