... and have different responses to it. According to Viola (2002), audiences who actively interpret a programme will bring to a text different subjectivity and readings due to different social backgrounds as well as knowledge resources of the programme and life. Audiences are therefore not 'sponges' who simply absorb media messages just are they are intended but they are active in the way that they interpret media messages. An active audience is also one that has the freedom of choice. They are active in the way that they select media and media content. They make choices by choosing programmes and channels that they want to watch, the radio stations that they want to listen to or even the type of newspaper that they want to read. Wilby and Conroy (1994:30) mentions that television channels are changed at the slightest provocation with a remote control unit. They also mention that if radio listeners ...

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