Theories

audience representation social

hypodermic syringe 

according to the theory media is like a syringe injecting ideas into viewers heads allowing them not to make there own mind up

two step flow

whatever our experience of the media we will be likely to discuss with others and if we respect there opinion we can be effected by it. eg jamie olivers theory and crap school dinners more respected opinion leaders

culmintaion theory

any one media text does not have too much effect but years and years of watching more violence will make you less sensitive to violence

uses and gratifications

this suggests that when we watch some sort of media text it is not just mindless entertainment  we want some sort of gratification from it eg watching a violent film for excitement horror for being scared etc

reception analysis

individual people decode certain media texts in different ways eg some people wont be scared by a horror film and some people will

david morley nationwide study 1980

observation of how different social groups read the ame media text

he discovered three main types of reading a text 

david gauntlett tenthings wrong with effect theoris

theory.org.uk

representations 

society
stereotypes
realism
representations over time