摘要：¡°The public is dead, long live the public¡± is a sentence out of the introduction of the reader The
Ungraspable Audience/ Het on(be)grijpbare publiek(2004) which not only wonderfully describes the recent
theories on audiences, but also covers the particular position of media studies in Belgium. This
communication studies discipline is widely fragmented and described as dominated by traditional
quantitative communication studies. Even more, most of the time, communication studies in this Belgian
context are concentrated on the specific analysis of the Belgian media sphere. While interesting, these
studies sometime lack a conceptualisation and a linking up with the international field. The book The
Ungraspable Audience is one of the few examples which not only covers the field of media studies in
Belgium and beyond, but also engages with the international realm of media studies. In that perspective,
it was very courageous to publish a book which also includes English articles. This is particularly the case
for a publication in the small Belgian market of academic books and in a sensitive sphere in regard to the
language issue. Belgian publishers only publish books in either French or Dutch and are not so keen on
publishing in other languages. This reader is a good example of the transgression of national landscape
borders which depict the importance of the richness of the field of media studies.
