Reception Theory

• Given the Effects model and the Uses and Gratifications have their problems and limitations a different approach to audience was developed by the academic Stuart Hall at Birmingham University in the 1970s
• This considered how texts were encoded with meaning by producers and then decoded (understood) by audiences.

The theory suggests that;

• When a producer constructs a text it is encoded with a meaning or message that the producer wishes to convey to the audience
• In some instances audience will correctly decode the message or meaning and understand what the producer was trying to say
• In some instances the audience will either reject or fail to correctly understand the message

Stuart Hall identified three types of audience readings (or decoding) of the text;

1. Dominant or preferred
2. Negotiated
3. Oppositional

1. Dominant

• Where the audience decodes the message as the producer wants them to do and broadly agrees with it
• E.g. Watching a political speech and agreeing with it

2. Negotiated

• Where the audience accepts, rejects or refines elements of the text in the light of previously held views
• E.g. Neither agreeing or disagreeing with the political speech or being disinterested

3. Oppositional

• Where the dominant meaning is recognised but rejected for cultural, political or ideological reasons
• E.g. Total rejection of the political speech and active opposition