Media Audiences as Interpretive Communities

Abstract

An interpretive community is the site of the socially coordinated practices that raise the premises of interpretation for the content of media. Locating himself between the extremes of presented and constructed meaning, Lindlof places the horizon of interpretation at the boundaries of community membership. Reworking the concept of genre, he shows genres of content to be achievements of the interpreting community, genres of interpretation to develop across memberships, and introduces the notion of genres of social action to account for the multiple referents of mediated communication activity.