想像的群眾？真實的商品？——閱聽人圖像之組織形構分析

Imagined Crowds? Real Commodities? - An Analysis on the Institutional Construction of Audience Images

本文旨在探討當前媒介產業中閱聽人圖像之組織形構過程及其意義。在分析架構上，以廣電媒介機構為焦點，結合新古典經濟學派與文化理論之觀點，關注自由經濟體系下媒介閱聽人概念之形成、媒介市場中「閱聽人商品」之交易邏輯，以及閱聽人實用價值之產製過程。本文認為，「媒介閱聽人」是以一種流動的想像群眾形式存在於不同的傳播理論預設之中，而在自由市場之經濟趨力下，則透過媒介產業一連串的組織形塑過程，被建構成為以交換價值為主之商品；究其意義，已與傳播研究中所關注的「大眾閱聽人」概念相去甚遠。

This study is intended to unravel the ways in which various institutions construct "audience images" and their social and cultural implications. Focusing on the broadcast media organizations, the analysis draws upon neo-classic economics and cultural theories to examine the formation of media audiences, the logics of "audience commodity" trade, and the production of the utility value of audiences in most contemporary societies. The study argues that audience is a fluid concept that exists as imagined entities in the presumptions of different communication theories. Nevertheless, the concept of "media audience" is mainly constructed and manifested as commodities that have exchange value through a series of institutionalized processes in the contemporary societies. Therefore, the meanings of "media audience" nowadays are further apart from the "mass audience" concept addressed in many communication theories.