ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the main analytical concepts used to study audiences in journalism and how they can be refined and extended by amplifying the field of journalism studies with insights and theories from neighboring disciplines. The use of audience engagement figures has led to concerns about the influence of Google, YouTube, and Facebook on news access and news availability. In terms of history, attention to changing user practices of news and journalism should be added to the discipline’s more common focus on narrating the history of particular news organizations or journalists. News reach, which is measured through newspaper circulation, ratings, and market shares, was primarily the concern of marketing departments. News users can be expected to act ethically by reflecting on the kind of friendship that journalism triggers in them, by the amount of time they choose to spend with these friends, and by taking on the responsibility for their own news participation.
