# audience, viewers, spectators



## comsci

Greetings,

How do you differentiate these two words? Is there any nuance in usage between the two?  Examples would certainly help.  Thank you for commenting.


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## cuchuflete

An audience is normally presumed to have made a conscious decision to witness an event.  It is plural in meaning---although the noun is singular, it is a gathering of people.

A spectator may be a member of an audience, or a casual bystander who accidentally and unintentionally witnesses something.


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## comsci

Thanks cuchu, that was as quick and concise as it ever gets.  You're the man.


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## timpeac

I wonder if you mean to contrast "audience" and "spectators"? I think that you always have "spectators" at a sporting event. You would have an "audience" at the theatre, a concert, the circus, a TV studio, or the people watching TV across the country (who are also known as "viewers").


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## la reine victoria

comsci said:
			
		

> Greetings,
> 
> How do you differentiate these two words? Is there any nuance in usage between the two? Examples would certainly help. Thank you for commenting.


 
It is interesting to note that "audience" has its roots in the Latin "audire" - to hear. While "spectator" is derived from "spectare" - to see.

When the Colosseum in Rome was flourishing, those who went to witness the spectacles were known as spectators - I don't think the noun "audience" would have been applicable to them. We also speak today of spectators at sports events such as football, ice hockey, rugby. 

"Audience" is used more when there is something to be both seen and heard, such as a play at the theatre, an opera, a ballet, a variety show. A musical concert, appropriately, has an audience which is there to hear the music.



LRV
*|*


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## timpeac

la reine victoria said:
			
		

> It is interesting to note that "audience" has its roots in the Latin "audire" - to hear. While "spectator" is derived from "spectare" - to see.
> 
> When the Colosseum in Rome was flourishing, those who went to witness the spectacles were known as spectators - I don't think the noun "audience" would have been applicable to them. We also speak today of spectators at sports events such as football, ice hockey, rugby.
> 
> "Audience" is used more when there is something to be both seen and heard, such as a play at the theatre, an opera, a ballet, a variety show. A musical concert, appropriately, has an audience which is there to hear the music.
> 
> 
> 
> LRV
> .....


I thought about drawing the "audience" form Latin "to hear" and "spectator" from Latin "to watch" distinction but I don't think there is any real correlation. You would have an audience at the ballet, wouldn't you?

I think the difference might be that you have an audience at a recital of some description (whether the circus, a play, a mime show or the TV - the action is preordained, already known in exact detail) and "spectators" when the action is raw, playing out before our eyes (a sport, racing, the eclipse of the sun, the hanging of the highwayman).


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## foxfirebrand

Ballets have music. If I ever got dragged to one, that would be the focus of my attention-- none of the women have curves to speak of. Much prefer the opera.

I think the correlation holds. And speaking of attention, the "audience" at a sports event is often inattentive, and don't completely qualify as spectators. Also they come and go at will-- those may be reasons it seems so natural to call the gathering at a ball game or boxing bout "the crowd."

Your point about action is well taken, and "spectators" do indeed attend (ostensibly) non-entertainment events, such as guillotinings and road-rage brawls. But also, none of these events have music.

An audience also usually pays, and Cuchu makes a valid point about it being a _gathering._ Radio listeners and TV viewers are scattered among millions of households that may or may not be tuned in-- as opposed to the "studio audience," who attend en masse.
.
.


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## la reine victoria

timpeac said:
			
		

> You would have an audience at the ballet, wouldn't you?


 
Indeed you would Tim, which I pointed out. 



> "Audience" is used more when there is something to be both seen and heard, such as a play at the theatre, an opera, *a ballet*, a variety show.


 

Regards,
LRV


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## lama

doesn't  "audience"  come from "audio"?and "spectators" are people who watch something,like "téléspectateurs" in french means the tv viewers.


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## timpeac

la reine victoria said:
			
		

> Indeed you would Tim, which I pointed out.
> Regards,
> LRV


So you did, sorry. But you would have an audience at a mime performance, no?


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## la reine victoria

timpeac said:
			
		

> So you did, sorry. But you would have an audience at a mime performance, no?


 

Only a deaf one! 



LRV


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## maxiogee

One can have a spectator.
One cannot have "a" audience. _Audience_ implies a multiplicity of persons.


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## foxfirebrand

maxiogee said:
			
		

> One can have a spectator.
> One cannot have "a" audience. _Audience_ implies a multiplicity of persons.


 You can have an audience-- with the Pope, for example. Also, it's used in the plural more often than most collective nouns-- comedians will tell you, for example, that no two audiences are alike.

There's no collective form for a mob of spectators, or radio listeners-- but a TV show can have a viewership.
.


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## comsci

timpeac said:
			
		

> I wonder if you mean to contrast "audience" and "spectators"? I think that you always have "spectators" at a sporting event. You would have an "audience" at the theatre, a concert, the circus, a TV studio, or the people watching TV across the country (who are also known as "viewers").


 
Yes, definitely, I certainly agree with the above. Moreover, "spectators may gather at the scene of an accident" if I'm not mistaken. In this case "audience" would clearly not be the choice.

Very specifically I need to make myself clear is that I understand "*audience*" is a mass noun like "*mail*" and thus, as mentioned before, is *plural in meaning* but uncountable(always singular). "Spectator", in contrast however, is certainly countable hence not a mass noun.  "News" would be another example of a mass noun.


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## maxiogee

foxfirebrand said:
			
		

> You can have an audience-- with the Pope, for example. Also, it's used in the plural more often than most collective nouns-- comedians will tell you, for example, that no two audiences are alike.
> 
> There's no collective form for a mob of spectators, or radio listeners-- but a TV show can have a viewership.
> .



You miss my drift - maybe my drift is too wide-angled.
I was implying that one person is a spectator, one person is not an audience. An audience is defined in plural terms - those attending, the spectators, etc.


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## foxfirebrand

maxiogee said:
			
		

> You miss my drift - maybe my drift is too wide-angled.
> I was implying that one person is a spectator, one person is not an audience. An audience is defined in plural terms - those attending, the spectators, etc.


Well I was playing on words a little, but on the other hand an audience can indeed be so small it consists of, or dwindles down to, a single person.  What does the performer do, stop his rountine?  Not while he had breath.

You occasionally heard comics on Johnny Carson come out with anecdotes about playing to an audience of one-- Johnny had a well-known such story about a particularly discouraging night in his career as a magician.

But in linguistic terms, you're basically right-- an audience is a gathering, a collective noun almost always used in the singular.  But don't forget my example in the post above, that "no two audiences are exactly alike."
.
.


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## maxiogee

foxfirebrand said:
			
		

> Well I was playing on words a little, but on the other hand an audience can indeed be so small it consists of, or dwindles down to, a single person.  What does the performer do, stop his rountine?  Not while he had breath.



Actors' Equity (the trade union for the acting profession business) says that "The show must go on" if there is one more in the audience than there is/will be on the stage!


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## Robbo

cuchuflete said:
			
		

> An audience is normally presumed to have made a conscious decision to witness an event.  *It is plural in meaning*---although the noun is singular, it is a gathering of people.



Not always. For example:

She had an audience with the Pope.   She spoke to him alone for ten minutes.

*Robbo*


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## Robbo

cuchuflete said:
			
		

> An audience is normally presumed to have made a conscious decision to *witness *an event. ...



I suppose it depends what you mean by "witness".   You certainly do NOT have to be present and see the events to be part of the audience...

BBC World Service News has an *audience *of 125 million radio listeners.

*Robbo*


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## maxiogee

Robbo said:
			
		

> I suppose it depends what you mean by "witness".   You certainly do NOT have to be present and see the events to be part of the audience...
> 
> BBC World Service News has an *audience *of 125 million radio listeners.
> 
> *Robbo*



… who all turned on their radios (conscious decision) so that they could listen (witness) the broadcast.
Not all witnesses are 'eye witnesses'.


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## cuchuflete

Thanks for pointing that out, Tony.  Sightless people may be part of an audience, and witness an event.  Deaf people may attend an opera as members of an audience.   They may both be spectators.


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## comsci

Very interesting I would say in cases extraneous like these. There are, of course, exceptions to any "norms", as some of you have pointed it out. Yet the main idea is clear that both "audience" and "spectators" can be "witnesses or eye witnesses" to any event or performance regardless of one's physical health.(deaf or sightless) It heavily depends on how the author would like to use these words given the context to carry out a specific atmosphere/genre in writing that's all.


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## Manwell

Which one of those words should I use (and why?) in the following:

_The (audience/spectators) applauded enthousiastically after the perfomance was finished._


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## french4beth

Manwell said:
			
		

> Which one of those words should I use (and why?) in the following:
> 
> _The (audience/spectators) applauded enthousiastically after the perfomance was finished._


Both would be correct; _audience_ is a collective noun meaning _spectators_.


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## Confused Linguist

Both would be correct, but "the audience applauded" is used more often.


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## DavyBCN

Confused Linguist said:
			
		

> Both would be correct, but "the audience applauded" is used more often.


 
An alternative thought on the usage of these two words. I tend to use audience when I am talking about a cultural event such as a concert or a play. I use spectators for a sporting or other such activity, such as a game of football. I use "members of the audience/people in the audience" and never think of spectators as part of an audience. This may be just a personal usage. And, a collective word for spectators - the crowd.


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## river

Audience: a gathering of spectators *or listeners* at a (usually public) performance; "the audience applauded."

Spectator: a close observer; someone who looks at something (such as an exhibition of some kind); "the spectators applauded the performance."


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## hohodicestu

I would say "audience", although "spectators" is also correct.


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## daviesri

I would use "audience".  If it is a sporting event I would use "spectator".


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## panjandrum

I'm amazed that no one has suggested that:

An audience listens;

Spectators watch.


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## .   1

panjandrum said:
			
		

> I'm amazed that no one has suggested that:
> 
> An audience listens;
> 
> Spectators watch.


My computer had a virus and would not let me but I was trying.
I also feel that an audience has an effect on a performance whereas spectators let the performance wash over them.

.,,


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## tigerduck

Hello 

I am currently writing a paper in English about rape in films. Can I use the word _spectator _in that context and/or can you suggest any other words that I could use instead? Here a sentence from my paper:

Not only the camera work but also the sound leave it open to the spectator if Harlan rapes Thelma or if he ‘only’ intends to rape her.
 
Thanks.


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## CarolSueC

I would probably use "viewer" or "observer."  For me "spectator" usually is associated with sports or large public events.


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## cuchuflete

Hi Tigerduck,
It really depends what impression you wish to make.  If you say spectator, you will give a sense that the observer or viewer or witness is seeing something with the attitude of an attendee at an entertainment or sporting event, as CarolSueC has pointed out.  If that is your intent, then spectator conveys the appropriate level of emotional detachment.


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## viera

I think "spectator" is fine here; we are talking about the film viewer here, not about a bystander present at the real life scene.


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## la reine victoria

In BrE we use "viewer" for someone who is watching a film. Never "spectator".

Many years ago, before 24 hour television, the BBC always began each broadcasting session with the presenter saying, "Good evening viewers."




LRV


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## foxfirebrand

la reine victoria said:
			
		

> In BrE we use "viewer" for someone who is watching a film. Never "spectator".


 I agree, and the same goes (in AE) for TV-- a spectator is someone present at a live performance, especially a sporting event.

We recently had a thread contrasting this term with "audience."
.


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## GenJen54

TV execs talk in terms of *viewership*. People who watch TV are *viewers*.

You can also *watch* a film or movie, but you are not a *watcher* of said film or movie. In screenwriting, we talk in terms of writing "ahead of your *audience,*" however that includes each individual *audience member*. 

I suppose if you wish to speak of an individual in this case, viewer might work, as would audience member. You could also use audience, which includes each audience member.

I agree with others that *spectator* is *not* an option in this context.


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## tigerduck

Hello 

Could somebody explain to me in what context the words _audience, viewers _and _spectators _are used?

Thanks


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## swyves

Typically:

Audience: at a play, concert; typically something in a theatre, comedy bar, cabaret etc

Viewer: television

Spectators: a sports event


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## tinnytina

Dear friends from Wordreference,
I'm working in my thesis of film and I need to define if I am going to use the word AUDIENCE or SPECTATOR. Sadly, on filmmaking "audience" is used not only to refers a number but to refers the public and "spectator" is used for one person. My thesis refers to the audience but I want to explain what happens in the mind of spectator. Could someone give me any idea?
Thanks in advance.

tinnytina


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## timpeac

tinnytina said:


> Dear friends from Wordreference,
> I'm working in my thesis of film and I need to define if I am going to use the word AUDIENCE or SPECTATOR. Sadly, on filmmaking "audience" is used not only to refers a number but to refers the public and "spectator" is used for one person. My thesis refers to the audience but I want to explain what happens in the mind of spectator. Could someone give me any idea?
> Thanks in advance.
> 
> tinnytina


"Spectator" doesn't sound right to me to refer to an individual person who views a film. You could say "film-goer" or "movie-goer" or "member of the audience".


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## redgiant

What do you call the people who attend the taping of a TV talk show? Are they called "live audience"?


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## CarolSueC

Yes, that's right.  Sometimes "studio audience" is used also.


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## JulianStuart

The phrase "live audience" always generates in my mind a brief image of a "dead audience"  (Rather like the image when I hear someone say "A large amount of people") "Live audience" is strictly redundant - it is a euphemism for "We didn't add the prerecorded audience track to the audio afterwards, like we do on some of our other shows".


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## redgiant

From what I've seen, some live TV shows have a few-second delay nowadays. I can imagine they would think nothing of using canned laughter if the 'live audience' was 'dead' and didn't react much to the host's jokes.


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## lalitham

comsci said:


> Greetings,
> 
> How do you differentiate these two words? Is there any nuance in usage between the two?  Examples would certainly help.  Thank you for commenting.



There are various nuances that make the terms “viewer”, “audience” and “spectator” suited to express different experiences.

A spectator views what can be considered a “spectacle” A football match or a tournament of any sort is viewed by “spectators”, who await the result in real time.

A viewer sees a soap on TV or a movie (cinema) that is already recorded.

An audience views a performance in a public forum.


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