Media Audiences and Identity ─ Self-construction in the Fan Experience

Using a unique combination of cultural studies research, neo-pragmatist philosophy, and psychoanalytic theory, the author sheds light on the formation of a social identity and the important role that mass media play in this process. Case studies covering a range of media and communities provide a model for developing a truly explanatory as well as descriptive account of self-media interaction that bridges the two opposing sides of the media audience debate and provides a significant new dimension to notions of 'passive' and 'active' media audiences.

STEVE BAILEY is Assistant Professor of Humanities in the Information Age at York University in Toronto, Canada. His work has appeared in numerous scholarly journals, including Popular Music and Society, Communication Review, Velvet Light Trap and Discourse of Sociological Practice.