Audiences’ coping practices with intrusive interfaces : researching audiences in algorithmic, datafied, platform societies

People in their role as audiences are increasingly confronted with intrusive digital media technologies that seek to collect personal data, shape people’s media experiences through algorithms and increasingly work towards establishing what is already being called a platform society. This tendency will become even more pertinent in the near future with the Internet of Things permeating many more aspects of our everyday lives. Software interfaces are thus becoming important objects of scientific inquiry. However, even though in their materiality interfaces promote very specific forms of media practices, people’s sense-making and interpretations still need to be considered as part of future audience research. In this context, we propose the idea of audiences’ coping practices when facing intrusive media interfaces in their exploitive, formative, ubiquitous and excluding character. By juxtaposing coping practices with intrusive media we sketch current and projected trends in audience research that focus on the power behind intrusive media on the one side and on people’s sense-making on the other side