Reception Theory

Stuart Hall

• Active audiences with individual differences
• Questions why different people interpret media content in different ways
• Idea that the media producer will encode the text in a certain way to convey a message
• Considers that the audience is an essential element in the creative process
• Explains that the audience interprets a media text according to their individual life experience, cultural background, social statuses, etc.
• The meaning of a media text is created within the relationship between the text and the reader

Stuart Hall argues that the process of representation itself forms the world it aims to represent, and explores how the shared language of a culture - i.e. its signs and images - provide a "conceptual roadmap" that gives meaning to the world, rather than simply reflecting it.

According to Hall, audiences 'read' media texts in three different ways:

Preferred/Dominant Reading

Individuals accept the reading that the producer of the text intended for the audience to have

For example, someone who likes McDonald's will see an advert for McDonald's and think that it looked really good, and may choose to eat there as a result.



Oppositional Reading

Individuals do not share the view of the text, and therefore, oppose what the producer wanted them to think

For example, someone such as a vegan, or an athlete, may see a McDonald's advert and think that it looked disgusting, which is obviously not what the producers of the advert intended for the meaning to be.



Negotiated Reading

Individuals accept some of the preferred reading of the text, but may modify it so that it reflects their own opinions and experiences

For example, someone who likes McDonald's, but knows that it isn't very healthy, may think that it looked really good, but they will only go and eat there occasionally.