Hall: Reception Theory

Stuart Hall 

(b. 1932- d. 2014)

Stuart Hall was a British-Jamaican theorist, sociologist and political activist. 

What is Reception Theory? 

Reception theory is an active audience theory, meaning that meaning is found in the text and then interpreted by the audience, compared to passive audience theories such as the hypodermic needle, assuming meaning is conveyed directly from a media text. Hall developed this theory in his 1973 essay "Encoding and Decoding in the Television Discourse", where he explained the theory along with his concept of encoding (creating meaning) and decoding (understanding the meaning). 

There are three types of readings, or meanings created by the audience:

- preferred reading: the way in which the original author intended the text to be recieved based on the meaning they had created

- negotiated/contested reading: only certain aspects of the preferred reading are accepted and the rest are not recognised or rejected

- oppositional reading: the conscious or subconscious rejection of the authors preferred reading

 

For example; based on their political views, a person would interpret a political speech differently, agreeing completely, partly agreeing, or disagreeing completely. 

Possible influences for my film: 

When considering the primary and secondary target audiences for my opening, I would ask for audience feedback in order to have an idea of the possible readings that could be applied.