ABSTRACT
Joel Best's article sketches ways that researchers have adopted social constructionism to illuminate important dynamics among individuals and institutions. One topic Best does not describe is the usefulness of taking a constructionist perspective with respect to media audiences. That is the aim of this contribution. It starts by noting that for many years studies of U.S. media industries have implicitly or explicitly suggested that media practitioners fundamentally create their audiences. It explores implications of this suggestion as well as the need for new ways to think about the media system's audience constructions as the 21st century unfolds.
