Reception theory

The television situation comedy show Friends's audience would probably be mainstream people because the characters in Friends are a group of mainstream people themselves who find themselves in situations and deal with problems that everyday people face. They would probably relate to the problems the characters face and find comedy in the situations. The preferred reading of the text would be that everybody goes through tough things in life but you have to look at the fun side and laugh about it and have your friends around to help. The encoders want to achieve the idea that if you want something you have to step out of your comfort zone and work hard for it. This is portrayed by the character Rachel who leaves her family and security to build a new and better life for herself (this is also the ideologies). The text celebrates friendship, relation ships and situations that most of us find ourselves in and that we have to just look at the funny side of it. The underlying messages are that in life, sometimes things go wrong and relationships don't always work out but things alway get better.
The oppositional reading of the text is that people's lives don't always work out for the best and that things in life don't turn out to be that funny as Friends is a set up situation used for entertainment. People's cultural experiences might agree with Friends because they might agree with Rachel that you can get what you want if you work for it.
The situation where the character Chandler calls Monica fat might give people a negotiated reading of the show and character as its really hurtful and people could take offence. It could be negotiated because other people might just laugh it off and not take offence because its just a television show.
People might feel their social needs are fulfilled from Friends because they can watch Friends with others and talk about it or talk about it on social media sites. Friends could give people information about how you should make the most of a bad situation by laughing it off. The entertaining side if the fact that its a comedy and we (the audience) can laugh at the characters and escape from real life. People's personal identification can be fulfilled from Friends because people can relate to the characters and what they've gone through and find traits of themselves in the characters.