What do theorists think about the way we read texts?

Television is playing an increasingly more important role within the family system as many people now find it hard to imagine living without it. The media have a definite place in the family interaction pattern and structure the framework of family life. 

The media are interpreted against the background of everyday life as it is lived and experienced, so the are used to cope with everyday problems. Audiences will choose to watch different programmes due to their demeaning features such as age, gender and background. Some of the reasons that people watch programmes are for enjoyment, information, escapism, general interest, research, education, personal identity, seeking advice, integration, social interaction and entertainment.

Some theorists such as Emile Durkheim believe in collective consciousness, which means that a group of people will all take the same meaning from a text, as everyone have the set set of morals and agree with what is wrong and right. This theory fits in with the theory of a passive audience, which uses the 'hyperdermic needle' theory, meaning that people do not have their own opinions. Whereas, the theory of active audience believes in the 'uses and gratification model' which believes that each audience member is an individual and therefore reacts differently towards a text.

I think that aswell as using stereotypes in order to put a point across and show problems with certain cultures clearly, television also challenges stereotypes in order to change peoples opinions of different cultures. However, how television portrays certain stereotypes are subjective to how that director wants them to be shown and are not always considered accurate or realistic, as theorists such as David Buckingham suggest within the 'After the death of Childhood'  theory where it is argued that the media represents childhood in one of two ways. Either as innocent, in order to preserve that time as idilic, or corrupt in order to play of adults anxieties, because it is a representation of adults and how they see/remember things.