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Quinn, Edward. "audience." Writer's Reference Center. Facts On File, Inc. Web. 17 Apr. 2025. <http://fofweb.infobase.com/wrc/Detail.aspx?iPin=DLLT0093>.
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audience

Definition 
The spectators at a play, film, or television show. In each case the role of the audience differs: At a play, the audience's responses, or lack thereof, are immediately communicated to the actors, which may alter to some degree their performance; filmgoers frequently respond more to the visual effects than to the story, while television viewers can exercise the option of switching to another channel, which radically qualifies their commitment to a willing suspension of disbelief.

Theatrical history records a number of incidents in which the audience's reaction resulted in a riot (e.g. the Astor Place riot).

In writing about literature, "audience" is often used as a synonym for "reader." One celebrated example is Walter J. Ong's essay, "The Writer's Audience is Always a Fiction," in which he maintains that an experienced writer is able "to fictionalize in his imagination an audience," based upon his reading of earlier writers "who were fictionalizing in their imagination audiences they had learned."

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