The Reception Theory

This theory was developed by Stuart Hall, and academic.

Texts are encoded with meaning by producers and then decoded (understood) by the audience.

The theory suggests that:

• When a producer constructs a text it is encoded with a meaning/message that the producer wishes to convey to the audience
• In some cases the audience will correctly decode the message/meaning and understand.
• In other cases the audience will reject or fail to understand the message.

Stuart Hall identified three types of readings (decoding) of the text:

DOMINANT, NEGOTIATED & OPPOSITIONAL Dominant - The audience decodes the message as the producer wants them to do and broadly agrees with it

Negotiated - The audience accepts, rejects or refines elements of the text in light of previously held views

Oppositional - The dominant meaning is recongised by rejected for cultural, political or idealogoical reasons