Theory Work: Audience Theory- The Reception Theory

The Effects Theory, and the Uses and Gratifications Model both have surroundin controversies and limitations, and so a new approach was developed by Stuart Hall inthe 1970s. It considered how texts were encoded with meaning by producers and then decoded, or understood, by audiences. This 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.
Sometimes, the meaning is misinterpretedm, as is the case for the song 'Born in the USA' by Bruce Springsteen, which was actually about rejection from the USA after returning from the war. Nowadays, the song is wrongly recognised as an athem for America, singing its praises.
Sometimes audiences correctly decodethe message of meaning and understand what the producer is trying to say, but sometimes the audience will rejcts or fail to correctly identify or understand the message.

There are three ways that texts can be read, or decoded, by the audiences;

1. Dominant/Prefered- The audience decpdes the messgae correctly, and broadly agrees with it.

2. Negotiated- The audience accpets, rejects or refines the elements of the text, in light of previously held views. They neither agree, disagree or are disinterested.

3. Oppositional- The dominant meaning is recognised but is rejected for cultural, political or ideaological reasons.

The above diagram shows the 3 interpretations, and by height, how much they are wanted by the producer, Dominant being the prefered reading.

In the next few weeks i will be looking at what would happen if our video was decoded with each of the 3 readings.