Stuart Hall's Reception Theory

 

	Stuart Hall's Reception theory
	Stuart Hall’s reception theory emphasizes that media texts are encoded and decoded. The producer encodes messages and ideas based off their own ideologies which are then decoded by the audience. However, audiences with different ideologies will interpret different media differently, and perhaps in a way that producers did not intend for.
	Dominant or preferred reading
	This is how the producer wants the audience to view and interpret the media text. Audience members will take this position if the messages are clear and if the audience member is of the same age and culture. This way of interpretation is viewed if it has an easy to follow narrative and if it deals with themes relative to the audience.
	e.g., The audience has decoded the Joker exactly as the producers intended – as the villain.
	Oppositional reading
	This is when the audience rejects the preferred reading, and creates their own meaning for the text. This can happen if the media contains controversial themes that the audience member disagrees with. It can also arise when the media has a complex narrative structure perhaps not dealing with themes in modern society. Oppositional reading can also occur if the audience member has oppositional beliefs, ideologies, or is of a different age and culture.
	e.g., Grand Theft Auto 5 may encourage that violence, drugs, etc. is cool which may be against some audience’s ideologies     negotiated reading  This is a compromise between the dominant and oppositional readings, where the audience accepts parts of the producer’s views, but has their own views on parts as well.  this can occur if there is a combination of some of the above, e.g., the audience member likes the media, is of the same age as you, and understands some of the messages, but the narrative is complex and this inhibits full understanding.  E.g., the movie pineapple express suggests that drugs just cause harmless fun