Reception Theory (Stuart Hall)

The reception theory is an active audience theory which sees the audience as being actively engaged in the interpretations of media texts, rather than passive consumers. The idea is that individuals interpret texts in different ways. It demonstrates that even though one message is sent out the not one understanding is received.

When a producer creates text it is encoded with a meaning or message that they want to convey to a mass audience. This is called preferred reading. Sometimes the producer can encode a message that is not correctly understood by an audience making the message noneffective.

Hall included three different types of audience for decoding texts:

• Dominant- How the producer wants the audience to view the media texts.
• Negotiated- The audience understands and agrees with the text but disagrees with other areas they have their own view on. A mixture between dominant and oppositional. 
• Oppositional- The audience rejects the encoded meaning and creates their own meaning for the text. 

 Numerous factors add to whether we take the dominant, negotiated or oppositional reading. The areas are as follows:

• Life experience
• Mood at time of viewing 
• Age 
• Culture 
• Belief 
• Gender