Stuart Hall and Reception theory

Question 1

What does oppositional / positional reading mean?

Answer 1

That audience interprets media product and they absolutely do not take onboard the messages that the producers wanted them to take onboard.

Question 2

What does Preferred reading mean?

Answer 2

That the particular messages have been received by the audience, accepted by them and that the audience totally gets what the producer wanted them to understand.

Question 3

What does Negotiated reading mean?

Answer 3

An audience member understands the messages that we kind of get what the producer intended and we accept some of those messages but we reject other parts of it.

Question 4

Why might audience read texts in different ways?

Answer 4

• Different genders.
• Different ages.
• Different historical time periods.
• Brought up in different areas of the country.
• Different backgrounds.
• Different ethnicities.
• Different sexualities.

Question 5

What do media texts contain that is encoded/made/inserted by producers?

Answer 5

A variety of messages that are encoded (made/inserted) by producers and then decoded (understood) by audiences. Therefore what we see is simply a ‘re-presentation’ of what producers want us to see.

Question 6

What does having a dominant or preferred reading mean?

Answer 6

That you have understood the director’s intentions and also agree with them (react in the way the director has intended).