audience

Art is made by artists, but it is possible only with audiences; and perhaps the most worrying trait of American culture in the past half century, with high and low dancing their sometimes happy, sometimes challenging dance, has been the threatened disappearance of a…

The psychology and behaviour of a radio or television audience, which is composed principally of individuals in the privacy of their own homes, differ considerably from those of an audience in a theatre or lecture hall. There is none of the crowd atmosphere that…

Traditionally, a constant interplay between the actors and the spectators took place in the Kabuki theatre. The actors frequently interrupted the play to address the crowd, and the latter responded with appropriate praise or clapped their hands according to a prescribed formula. They also…

…offering fictional narratives to large audiences in theatres, film was quickly recognized as perhaps the first truly mass form of entertainment. Without losing its broad appeal, the medium also developed as a means of artistic expression in such areas as acting, directing, screenwriting, cinematography, costume and set design, and music.

…experience limited to a one-person audience. Soon after, the advent of motion-picture projection transformed the medium predominantly into a form of theatrical entertainment viewed by large numbers of people simultaneously. By the end of the 20th century, new technologies had made possible a wide variety of viewing options, ranging from…

…is one directed to securing audience attention and affection. The need for audience approval has led to innovations as well as some decadence in its impact on the musical scene: innovation, if the performer is led to discover imaginative and fresh means of attracting public acclaim; decadence, if the devices…

…the gradual emergence of the audience, for the relationship between participants in the musical experience—between performer and listener—became polarized. The first evidence for this shift was the rise of the professional vocal virtuoso about the last quarter of the 16th century, and this development soon had a profound influence on…

…exchange whereby members of an audience come to feel that they personally know a performer they have encountered in mass media. Parasocial interactions (PSIs) are thought to have a psychological effect similar to that of face-to-face communication. Over time, PSIs with a performer may lead audience members to develop a…

…between the player and his audience must be established by other means. The audience must work harder. The spectators must no longer be mere spectators; they must bring their sympathetic imagination to bear and project upon the impersonal mask of the player the emotions of the drama. Spectators at a…

…early days of network radio, audiences witnessing a broadcast were admonished not to make any noise, as it was felt that this would confuse the listeners at home. Comedian Eddie Cantor needed laughter and applause, however, and early in his tenure (September 1931 to November 1934) as host of The…

…of performing before several different audiences each day sharpened their timing, a skill that was invaluable for radio. Early comedy programs seemed like vaudeville shows. Ed Wynn, who appeared as “The Fire Chief” for Texaco gasoline from 1932 to 1935, simply stood on a stage and told jokes, with announcer…

…Riverside, California, and found the audience of servicemen so wildly responsive that a typical studio audience seemed tepid by comparison. During the next seven years all but two of his shows were broadcast from army camps, naval bases, and service hospitals around the world.

Charlie’s personality captivated the audience, and by May 9, 1937, Bergen and McCarthy were the new stars of the prestigious variety show The Chase and Sanborn Hour. Bergen remained on radio through 1956.

As audiences dwindled and sponsors disappeared, network radio shows had to operate on ever-decreasing budgets. Live orchestras were scrapped in favour of recorded music; fewer actors were used on a given program; and some shows went from a once-a-week, 30-minute format to a smaller-scale show, running…

This paternalistic approach—to program what audiences “needed” rather than what they might actually desire—strongly characterized radio in Europe (and later most of its colonies, even after they became independent) until late in the 20th century.

…10 percent of the British audience, was widely emulated in Europe and on the slowly growing number of American educational radio stations. Soon there were three separate BBC program services: Home, Light, and Third. Each of the three provided different content for different audiences, the stated intent being to elevate…

…postwar radio services with narrower audience aims. The supposedly private RFE, which broadcast to Eastern Europe beginning in 1950, and Radio Liberty (RL), which broadcast into the Soviet Union beginning in 1953, were actually secretly funded by the Central Intelligence Agency until the early 1970s and more openly from then…

” His audiences at first were largely black until white teenagers began to hear and like what he dubbed “rock and roll” music. He moved to New York City in 1954 and soon enjoyed huge audiences both on the air and at live concerts. His program was…

…early FM receivers that restricted audiences to the wealthy and educated minority. In 1945 the FCC shifted FM service up to frequency bands in the 88–108 megahertz (MHz) range still used today, which increased the number of available channels. Owning an FM outlet was seen by many as insurance for…

… auditorium—the “wooden O”—which gathered the audience around the platform, sealing them off from the outside world and concentrating their attention on the performance. As active auditors they became an integral part of the drama, and one must be constantly aware of them in the very writing, structure, and timing of…

…in its relationship to the audience. The film is an event designed for a theatre with an audience specially assembled for the performance. Television, on the other hand, resembles a private performance in the home. The attitude of a person sitting perhaps alone and often for hours on end before…

…to each play, constructing different audience frameworks for each production. The sets were usually based on multilevel platforms, balconies, ramps, and scaffolds surrounding a stage that encroached on the audience’s territory, providing a wider range of space for the actors and a greater flexibility of interaction between the audience and…

The theatre depends more than most arts upon audience response. If the house is not full, not only does the performance lose money but it also loses force. It is unusual—but not impossible—for new ideas, even for new ways of expressing old ideas, to…

…before the eyes of the audience.