Reception Theory- Stuart Hall

This theory states that there are three ways that the audience decodes the media.

Reception Theory

1. Preferred / Dominant Reading- The audience decodes the reading in the way that the producer wants them to.
2. Opposition Reading- The audience decodes the reading in the opposite way to what the producer wants them to.
3. Negotiated Reading- The audience accepts some of it but brings their own experience into it.

The theory states that the audience is not passive. This means that we do not always just accept everything that is put in front of us as the producer wants us to, but instead we decode it in an oppositional ore negotiated way. This does not mean that we do not sometimes decode the reading in the way that the producer wants us to, but it is saying that not everyone is going to sit and accept the views of one producer's piece of work.

Preferred Reading- We want to go out
and buy the Big Mac.

Oppositional Reading- This is unhealthy
I can't eat this.

The McDonalds advert on the right is a perfect example of reception theory. An advert like this divides people's opinions. 

Social aspects also affect how the audience decodes the media:-

Negotiated- I want to go and have one,
but I need to eat healthily, maybe
another day.

• Gender- Men and women will decode different media texts differently. For example, an advert persuading the audience to buy a fashion accessary, is likely to be decoded differently if you're a man or a woman. Women will be more likely to decode it in the preferred reading, whereas men will more likely to sway towards oppositional reading. This is an extreme example and most likely in practice will not happen like this, but you get the picture!!
• Age- Different ages will interpret different media's in different ways. The same applies for class as well.

Examples in Music Videos:-

Different ages and genders will interpret this video above in different ways. Younger girls may see this  as "the best idea of a day ever'... However, older people may see this as young people being irresponsible. Boys may look at this in a different way to girls as all of the extras in this video are girls so that the focus is on the boy band.