Introduction to the special issue 'Audiences and Publics’

When is the media audience ‘the public’? This question raises fundamental issues about how audiences act, how they are addressed and whether they matter to the public sphere. To what extent and in what ways are publics becoming mediated? This question pinpoints growing concerns about how publics are influenced by the media, even dependent on the media. These questions can be asked the other way around. Which aspects of audiences are not usefully discussed in terms of publics? When are the media not relevant to questions of public or civic participation?