Encoding and decoding describes how audiences give different responses when receiving media messages, based on their social position, gender, age, ethnicity, religion, and what they are doing when receiving the message. There are three types of audience responses: dominant, where the audience accepts the dominant values in the media text; negotiated, where the audience generally agrees with the values but may disagree on some aspects due to their own beliefs; and oppositional, where the audience totally disagrees with how values are represented in the media text.