This is to help anyone who needs to know the specific differences between active and passive audiences. Along with descriptions and theories that have been created in order to explain the influence the media has, on either active or passive audiences.

1. Different Types Of Audience
When creating any type of media; whether it being a
film, magazine or online, you need to define a specific
target audience that you want to attract and will
appeal to them constantly.

2. Active Audience
Active audience theory argues that media
audiences do not just receive information
passively but are actively involved, often
unconsciously, in making sense of the
message within their personal and social
contexts.
 Decoding of a media message may
therefore be influenced by such things as
family background, beliefs, values, culture,
interests, education and experiences.


3. Passive Audience
A passive audience is an audience that
merely observes an event rather than
actively responding to it.
 There's been a few studies done on what
is called the 'audience effect'. Those
studies seem to show that a passive
audience works well for some events or
performers that don't require a whole lot
of skill.


4. The Hypodermic Needle Theory

This is an Passive Audience theory; that
portrays a type of media where they
inject a topic of idea directly into the
audience. And had an influence on the
audience’s belief of that particular media.

5. The Magic Bullet Theory

The "Magic Bullet" theory graphically
assumes that the media's message is a
bullet fired from the "media gun" into the
viewer's "head“. This is another type of
Active Audience.