Fiske rejects the notion that assumes "the audience" as an uncritical mass, the theory that mass audiences consume the products that are offered to them without thought. He instead suggests "audiences" as being of various social backgrounds and identities that enable them to receive texts differently.

The research observes thinking processes of students undergoing training to become teachers. It focused on their interpretations which provide a new approach to the ancient text " The Allegory of the Cave " in Plato's Politeia (The Republic).

John Fiske, a historian in the late 1800s, argued that English-speaking nations had superior character, ideas, and systems of government. His ideas convinced many Americans. This belief in racial superiority and cultural superiority, known as Anglo-Saxonism, was a popular ideology during the 19th century.

John Fiske (born March 30, 1842, Hartford, Conn., U.S.—died July 4, 1901, East Gloucester, Mass.) was an American historian and philosopher who popularized European evolutionary theory in the United States.