This document discusses several media theories related to audiences: - The hypodermic theory suggests audiences are passive and accept messages without thinking critically. This has been disproven. - The uses and gratification theory proposes audiences are active in seeking out media to fulfill certain needs. - Reception theory examines how audiences interpret (encoding) and understand (decoding) media messages based on their own backgrounds. - Audiences can have preferred, negotiated, or oppositional readings of media based on their agreement level with the producer's message.