How Audiences Consume Media

 Audiences consume media in 2 ways; Actively and Passively

Active: Questions and responds to the media text in different ways and is is capable of challenging the ideas encoded inside.

Passive: A passive audience is most likely to believe the media text, will be affected directly by it.

There are 2 ways that an Audience can consume media actively:

Reception Theory is Stuart Hall's theory which he thinks the media text contains different messages which then encoded by the producers and then decoded by audiences.

Uses and Gratification Theory is Bulmer's and Katz's theory which they think we are actively using the media to satisfy our base social needs. The base needs includes: Diversion, personal identity, social relationships, and surveillance.

There are 2 ways that an Audience can consume media passively:

Hypodermic Needle Theory is a model of communication that is meant to directly received and accepted by the receiver, essentially brainwashing them.

Desensitisation is when an audience is exposed to violent or shocking media content, that they eventually get used to and no longer receive an effect the same way.