interpretive community media n. a group constituted by shared ways of interpreting texts. The term has its origins in literary criticism, particularly in reader response theory. While it emphasizes the importance of the reader in making sense of a text, it nonetheless avoids assuming that all reading is simply an arbitrary, individualistic and subjective process by situating the act of reading within a shared set of reading practices held in common by a specific community. The American literary critic and theorist, Stanley Fish, (b.1938) is credited with first using the term, though rarely with any sociological or historically specific content. mmo
