Active audience theory is a theory that people receive and interpret media messages in different ways, usually according to factors such as age, ethnicity, social class, etc. The audience is neither passive nor homogenous.
Katz and Lazarsfeld in 1955 came up with a two step flow theory in which people discuss media texts in their social networks where there will usually be opinion leaders who set the tone for what the rest of the group think.
In 1980 David Morley did a study to see how viewers interpreted a television show at the time: Nationwide. He found there were generally three types of reading: