Stuart Hall’s encoding/decoding model suggests that audiences are active, as in they are able to decode messages that have been encoded in media texts. In his article, ‘Active Audiences and the Construction of Public Knowledge’, Greg Philo discusses the model and raises some important questions about how audiences perceive the world around them through media texts.

Philo suggests that there is some confusion around what Hall means by decoding, as audiences do not create a new meaning in media texts when they read them. Instead, they may criticise the message presented in a text based on their own perspective. In this way, Hall has suggested that a reading of a text may be dominant, negotiated or oppositional.

In the article, Philo asks three key questions:

1. What are the conditions under which people accept or reject a perspective when they are aware of alternatives?
2. What are the conditions under which information about these alternatives is either made available or is limited in public discourse, and what happens to Hall’s group of people who are living within the hegemonic ideology if they are given different information?
3. Under what conditions can ideologies in the encoded message be critiqued by audiences?

None of these questions are easily answered, as with most research in media studies, they ask about variables that can’t be directly measured, yet still necessary to ask. Strong theories about the way in which audiences consume media texts and their messages can’t be made unless these questions are given serious thought.