We write this paper presenting frameworks and findings from anudinternational network on audience research, as we stand 75 years fromudHerta Herzog’s (1942) classic investigation of radio listeners, published inudLazarsfeld and Stanton’s 1944 war edition of Radio Research. The paperudaims to contribute to and advance a rich strand of self-reflexive stocktakingudand sorting of future research priorities within the transforming fieldudof audience analysis, by drawing on the collective efforts of CEDAR –udConsortium on Emerging Directions in Audience Research - a 14 countryudnetwork (2015-2018) funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council,udUK, which conducted a foresight analysis exercise on developing currentudtrends and future scenarios for audiences and audience research in theudyear 2030. First, we wish to present the blueprint of what we did and howudwe did it – by discussing the questions, contexts and frameworks for ourudproject. We hope this is useful for anyone considering a foresight analysisudtask, an approach we present as an innovative and rigorous tool forudassessing and understanding the future of a field. Second, we presentudfindings from our analysis of pivotal transformations in the field and theudfuture scenarios we constructed for audiences, as media technologiesudrapidly change with the arrival of the Internet of Things and changes onudmany levels occur in audience practices. These findings not only makeudsense of a transformative decade that we have just lived through but theyudpresent possibilities for the future, outlining areas for individual andudcollective intellectual commitment.
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