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Book Reviews : The Role of the Reader: explorations in the semiotics of texts, by Umberto Eco. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1979

continued to rely on a rather flimsy foundation of evidence. Thus, one is bound to approach Ellen Mickiewicz’s book with a degree of anticipation. In content, the book provides chapters on the structure of the audience for television, newspapers, films and for theatre and music in respect of size and some obvious demographic indicators. Much of the evidence confirms patterns of audience behaviour and interest that approximate those found in western media systems, especially in the attachment to entertainment and the strong influence exerted by education and cultural background. A sense is also conveyed of certain unfulfilled expectations, which is not surprising in a media system not formally dedicated to ’giving the public what it wants’. More interesting are those parts of the book that deal with aspects of the media that are more distinctive of the society the importance attached to the newspaper as advocate and forum, for example ; or the salience of theatre and music, where all is not what it seems or ought to be; or the oral mass medium of the informational lecture programme. In assessment, it has to be said that the general handicaps to a good book about the media public named above have not been overcome. The author has attempted to piece together a general description of the various media audiences from somewhat fragmentary evidence and the result is a factual-descriptive book in which it