Stuart Halls - Reception Theory

This theory was developed in the 1970's and it considers

• How texts/products are encoded
• And how the text/product is then decoded by the audience

The theory suggests that when a producer creates a product e.g. A music video, it is carefully encoded with a meaning and messages. The purpose of this is that the audience will correctly decoded the message that is being communicated, and they will understand what the producer is trying to say. However, in some cases the audience will either fail to understand or they will decided to reject the idea.

Hall identified 3 types of audience readings of the text (how the audience decodes it)

1. Dominant: This refers to when the audience broadly agrees with the message and understands it correctly. Example - The audience likes a music video and understands what is being shown to them.
2. Negotiated: The audience accepts, rejects, or refines elements of the product in light of previously held views. Example - The audience agrees/likes some parts of a music video, but doesn't like/disagrees with other parts of it.
3. Oppositional: The meaning is correctly retrieved by the audience but it is rejected for either cultural, political, or ideological reasons. Example - Total rejection of a music video.

How this links to the coursework

In our music video their is going to be a message encoded within the video about how the majority of young people think/feel a romantic relationship should be like. We hope that our audience of young people will successfully decode the message and accept it.