With reference to your own detailed examples, explore how audiences are categorised by the producers of media texts

     In the media today, producers of media texts categorise their audiences allowing them to understand their target audience and encode the text with the correct uses and gratifications for the audience to take the preferred reading.
     Matthew Weiners Mad Men has been encoded to attract an active audience. One of the ways this has been done is through the usage of complex female characters. The stereotypical representation of females is that they are very dependant on men, and they are often sexualised, we are regularly put into the male gaze within texts such as James Bond. Mad Men is a little more complex than that. The character Joan uses her sexuality to gain power, she is implicitly forced to sleep with the head of Jaguar so that he will sign a deal with Dons advertising company, this conforms to the stereotypical female. The character Meg is a progressing female, she has disobeyed her husband and become a more independent woman, but is then sexualised by casting agents at an audition who merely look at her appearance. The character Peggie goes against the stereotypical female by using her intelligence to gain power, rather than sexuality, she leaves Dons agency and doesn't look back. An active audience would appreciate the thought Weiner put into the show by breaking the female stereotype, whereas a passive audience would gain no gratification from it as they are used to seeing women in a certain way.
     J.J Abrams Lost has been encoded to attract a wide mainstream audience, which are mainly passive. One way this has been done is with the usage of an ensemble cast, within the show the characters are of mixed race, gender and age which all get equal screen time, this attracts a wide audience as they are to personally identify with the characters. Lost attracts a passive audience via the usage of the score. The score is used to tell the audience how certain characters feel within in a scene and how they are supposed to react, an example of this is during the scene where Walt finds a pair of handcuffs, the music becomes very eerie and tells the audience that Walt as this moment is curious and afraid. This would not gratify an active audience as they like to be challenged when watching texts, many actually think that the usage of such an obvious score is almost patronising.