Hall: Reception theory
The theory states that media texts are encoded by the producer, meaning that whoever produces the text fills the product with values and messages.
The text is then decoded by the audience. Different spectators will decode the text in different ways, not always in the way the producer intended.
A text can be received in one of three ways:
Dominant or preferred reading - Read in the way the producer intended - the audience agrees with the messages and ideology that the producer has placed behind the text.
How?
Clear message, audience might be same age/culture, relevant to audiences society, easy to understand/relatable.
Negotiated reading - The audience accepts the views of the producer but have they own input and understanding of the text. They do not agree or disagree, they can however see a point being made in relation to the reading while also making their own opinions.
How?
Audience might not have same life experience, age might vary, don't understand the messages making it unclear what the dominant reading is supposed to be, may not understand the narrative or relate to it in a meaningful way.
Oppositional reading - The audience rejects the preferred reading and creates their own reading of the text, usually the opposite of what was intended. The reader rejects the meaning completely as they do not agree with the message that is being presented to the audience.
How?
The product has controversial themes, the audience disagrees with the messages of production, dislike the genre, no understanding, cannot relate narrative structure, is not reflective of their society, different cultures have different understanding.
The theory states that media texts are encoded by the producer, meaning that whoever produces the text fills the product with values and messages.
The text is then decoded by the audience. Different spectators will decode the text in different ways, not always in the way the producer intended.
A text can be received in one of three ways:
Dominant or preferred reading - Read in the way the producer intended - the audience agrees with the messages and ideology that the producer has placed behind the text.
How?
Clear message, audience might be same age/culture, relevant to audiences society, easy to understand/relatable.
Negotiated reading - The audience accepts the views of the producer but have they own input and understanding of the text. They do not agree or disagree, they can however see a point being made in relation to the reading while also making their own opinions.
How?
Audience might not have same life experience, age might vary, don't understand the messages making it unclear what the dominant reading is supposed to be, may not understand the narrative or relate to it in a meaningful way.
Oppositional reading - The audience rejects the preferred reading and creates their own reading of the text, usually the opposite of what was intended. The reader rejects the meaning completely as they do not agree with the message that is being presented to the audience.
How?
The product has controversial themes, the audience disagrees with the messages of production, dislike the genre, no understanding, cannot relate narrative structure, is not reflective of their society, different cultures have different understanding.
Explain the theory and discuss its limitations and value in terms of analysing newspapers and TV Drama.
Hall's reception theory says that media texts are encoded with values and messages by the producers of the product. The audience then decodes these messages and creates their own reading of the message. These readings could be either, Dominant, read in the way it was intended, negotiated, the audience understands the message being shown however has their own input and does not agree or disagree, or finally an oppositional reading, where the audience rejects the message completely.
The limitations of this theory includes that it assumes the audience is passive and so they will believe what they are told because there is not other source of information. When analysing newspapers and TV Dramas this theory can be useful as we can see what messages are being encoded within the media and what reaction the audiences might have of this and whether they have a dominant, negotiated or oppositional reading of the text.
Good overall view but there's more to do with the limitations and usefulness - acknowledges power of media, doesn't allow for multiple meanings etc.
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