ABSTRACT
All forms of communication define and position their audiences in particular ways. While it may implicitly claim merely to be opening a window onto the world, television news is no exception to this. It inevitably addresses and seeks to construct an ‘ideal reader’ who will be entertained and informed by what it has to offer. Yet the extent to which the ‘ideal reader’ coincides with the real reader is something that cannot be deduced simply from the text alone.
