Stuart Hall Reception Theory

Stuart Hall created the Reception Theory that states that " media texts are encoded by the producer - they are loaded with values and messages that the producer wishes to convey to the audience. However the text is then decoded by the spectator. Different spectators will decode the text in different ways, because everyone is and sees things unique. This may perhaps not be the way the producer intended it to be read.


Stuart Hall identified three different decodings of the text:
Dominant (preferred)

• How the producer wants the audience to view the media text eg. watching a political news story and agreeing with it

Negotiated 

• A compromise between the preferred and oppositional readings, where the audience accepts parts of the producer's views, but has their own views on parts as well eg. watching a political news story and neither disagreeing or agreeing

Oppositional

• When the audience rejects the preferred reading and creates their own meaning for the text eg. total rejection of the political news story and active opposition.

A culmination of factors affect whether one takes the dominant, negotiable or oppositional reading such as: Life experience, Mood at the time of viewing, Age, Culture, Belief, Gender or Values.