Passive and active audience theories discuss how audiences interact with media. Passive audience theory suggests audiences are easily influenced and accept media messages at face value. Active audience theory proposes audiences are more discerning and bring their own interpretations, selectively accepting or rejecting parts of media messages based on their own experiences and beliefs. The spaghetti harvest hoax in 1957 demonstrated some audiences can be initially misled by fictional media reports but tend to become more skeptical over time.
