Monday 18 December 2017

Stuart Halls Reception Theory

Stuart Hall's theory states that media texts are encoded and decoded y the producer, who encodes messages and values into their texts. These messages and values are then decoded by the audience, but different audiences will decode the media text in lots of different ways and not always in the way that the producer had initially intended. He believes that a text can be decoded in on of three ways:

Dominant or Preferred reading:
The preferred reading is when the text is read in the way that the producer intended, as the audience agree with the ideology that the producer has placed behind the text. This will usually include an easy to follow narrative that is relatable to the audience or are from the same culture.

Negotiated reading:
The negotiated reading is a compromise between the preferred reading and the oppositional reading of the text. This is when the audience accepts the producers messages and values, but also have their own opinions. This could because the audience don't have the same life experiences or don't understand all of the messages being made.

Oppositional reading:
The audience rejects the producers preferred reading of the text and instead create their own meaning which is usually the opposite of the preferred reading. This could be because the text includes controversial themes or the audience have no understanding.

Many factors can be down to the different readings such as:

  • Age
  • Culture 
  • Beliefs 
  • Gender
  • Mood
  • Life experiences 
Reception theory relates to our own work as our audience may all interpret our preferred reading in different ways. Our preferred reading is that the at the start of the video the relationship has ended and the protagonist then goes back to places reminiscing the relationship, however if our audience have never been in a relationship and is a different age then they could interpret it in a completely different way, so it is important to try and make your narrative as clear as possible so people are more likely to read the preferred meaning.




















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