| Language, words, printed matters and electronic products successively became the main media in four media ages during the human civilization. There is a close link between the media use of audiences and the development of era. Experienced Bullet Theory, Limited Effects Theory and Moderate Effects, the above viewpoints of audiences evolved gradually; people have realized that audiences play a vital role in communication. Now, our world is entering a new media age which is called media convergence, and audiences also extend their roles because of more communication channels, multi-media messages and the convergence of media functions. This paper analyses the problem of audiences'role extension through the interview of Guangzhou white-collar workers. On one side, the traditional role of information users and the people to give message feedback has been extended; information using is out of the control of time and space. People can enjoy the information services anytime, anywhere. The ways of feedback are so convenient that audiences increase their feedback. On the other side, new communication ways expedite new audiences'role. By blog or micro-blog, everyone can send messages to express his or her idea as a sender. Audiences also play the role of conversationalists in virtual community, they take part in the topic discussion and keep in touch with friends, and those behaviors build an unprecedented communication model.The extension of audience's role does not mean that traditional audiences will die out or audience groups will break up, but we should fix the position all over again. Today, we never have a clear division between senders and audiences. Audiences can play multiple roles at the same time. While the audience groups still exist, hardly can they replace the position of senders. Media organizations should adjust their communication policies quickly. They need to increase the personal functions of media, and strengthen target audiences and decrease redundancy. |
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