161 CHAPTER 9 Bridging the Gap Between Micro and Macro Forms of Engagement: Three Emerging Trends in Research on Audience Participation Maria Francesca Murru, Inês Amaral, Maria José Brites and Gilda Seddighi In this chapter we distil three emergent trends from research on audi- ence practices in a heavily mediated, and increasingly datafed, world (cf. van Dijck 2014), and posit these three trends as potential routes to bridging longstanding gaps between micro and macro forms of audience engagement. First, we identify the dynamics that are at work in the feld of micro politics, which pay attention to everyday-life-based engagement with civic meanings and practices, in the context of relentlessly trans- forming mediated civic cultures. Second, we pay attention to the shaping © The Author(s) 2018 R. Das and B. Ytre-Arne (eds.), The Future of Audiences, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-75638-7_9 M. F. Murru (*) Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Milan, Italy e-mail: maria.murru@unicatt.it I. Amaral University of Minho, Braga, Portugal e-mail: inesamaral@gmail.com