Active vs Passive theory

The Active audience theory argues that media audiences dont just receive information passively but are often unconsciously actively engaged and make sense of the message within their personal and social contexts. Decoding of a media message may be influenced by such things including values, family background, beliefs and culture.

Reading 

Preferred reading/dominant ready

The 'intended' reading of the text

-The simpsons is a program appropriate for all ages. With the show revolving around a nuclear family type ( married parents and blood related children , pets etc) the programme is family friendly. It uses current issues and trends with a twist to add comedy to everyday lives. Through the main characters never changing age , image etc and remaining the central characters in the text the program is made to remain current and to appear as though it is a 'classic'.

Oppositional reader

your dislike/disagree with the preferred reading

- Although the Simpsons is made to appear as though it is directed at a family based audience catering to audience members of all ages and racial backgrounds etc , it simply reflects the bias of the westernised world and elite. It reinforces gender differences in a derogative manner and undermines the role of women through the low status of Marge in the family. It also reinforcenegative stereotypes of ethnic groups for example those of an Asian background simply portraying asian men to be shop keepers and asian wives to have large numbers of kids which is not nececerily the reality. Thus making it inapropriate for younger viewers .

Negotiated reading

you dislike and like different aspects

-Although the Simpsons can in general be positively recieved by all audience types it could be argued that at times it takes realistic and current storylines too far and over exagerates them to the point where they can no longer allow audience members to gain personal gratifications from viewing the text .

Encoding/decoding model

Contemporary semioticians refer to the creation and interpretation of texts as 'encoding' and 'decoding' respectively. 

In 1973, Stuart Hall published a paper entitled 'Encoding/decoding'. This had a major influence on cultural studies, the essay challenges popular assumptions on how media messages are produced, circulated and consumed proposing a new theory of communication.

Uses and gratification theory

Uses and gratifications theory (UGT) is an approach to understanding why and how people actively seek out specific media to satisfy specific needs. UGT is an audience centered approach to understanding mass communication.

Diverging from other media effect theories that question "what do media do to people?", UGT focuses on "what do people do with media?"