Audience history as a history of ideas: towards a transnational history

Open Access

Abstract

This article was published in the serial, European Journal of Communication [Sage Publications / © The Authors]. The definitive version is available at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0267323114555825 ; One of the possible ways of approaching audience history is by focusing on the history of ideas about audiences. This article examines the benefits and shortcomings of such an approach and develops a set of methodological propositions, drawing on the principles and methods of the German tradition of Begriffsgeschichte (history of concepts). To demonstrate the usefulness of these propositions, the article briefly examines the ideas about audiences in socialist Yugoslavia, focusing on the surge of ideas about politically engaged audiences in the late 1960s. The concluding part of the article situates this historical episode in the wider geographical context and outlines possible avenues for a broader, transnational investigation of the history of ideas about audiences.