The “audience”, since it first became codified in the 18th century as a term for those who are consumers of an event of some sort, has been evolving along with the rest of thought around media/communication ever since. First it was extended to the mass consumption of media such as books in the 19th century, and then again expanded with the development of cinema and television in the 19th and 20th centuries.¹

A mediated audience is one whose experience is restricted or directed — by, for example, the publisher of a widely-read newspaper. The publisher’s decisions about what to include in their newspaper, and what angle to take on particular issues, places them in a position of power as a kind of “gatekeeper” to the audience’s experience. Throughout history this has led to huge amounts of power being restricted to a very small number of (white, rich, old) men.

The development of the internet completely broke down this paradigm, as one-way broadcast media was quickly replaced with interactive, two-way communication. Now, instead of having to watch a news broadcast on television at 6:00pm, consumers can discover news direct from the source in real time. Instead of having to buy a DVD copy of a television show, consumers can stream it whenever they like. Publishers and broadcasters, who used to wield the majority of the power in their relationship with their audiences, lost much of this power to democratisation and the increased choice of unmediated experiences offered by the internet.

Today, audiences are just as likely to be creators as consumers. We have seized the means of production from monolithic overseers (through blogs, podcasts, web series, etc.) and have transitioned from passively consuming media to actively engaging with it through discussion, discourse and sharing.² The fundamental distinction between creator and audience essentially no longer exists, and although there are remnants of the Old Way still present in society, they are actively losing power and relevance, not gaining it.