Audience Theory - continued (3).

Reception Theory.

-Given that the Effects model and the Uses and Gratifications have their problems and limitations a different approach to audiences 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 that is encoded with a meaning or message that the producer wishes to convey to the audience.
-In some instances audiences 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 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.