Hall’s Reception Theory - Dixon Chapter 17

The reading of the Dixon Chapter 17 within Mark Dixon’s Media Theory for A Level - The Essential Revision Guide has enhanced my knowledge and reading skills of Stuart Hall’s Reception theory vastly. I have learnt that there are broader topics and factors which largely influence whether an audience member will adopt the dominant, oppositional or negotiated reading when encoding and encoding the producer’s intended message, learning how media products interweave various iconic signs into their works in order to appear polysemic. Furthermore, the contributor of audiences potentially making misreadings shapes which reading position the audience member will uptake, dependent on the complexity and illegibility of a text.

I have also learnt that multiple other theorists (including Albert Bandura and David Gauntlett) might challenge Stuart Hall, such as George Gerbner’s cultivation theory, where he believes that even the strongest of audience members may experience attitudinal change as a result of media exposure. Linking closely to Neale’s Genre theory, there is the concept of genre-driven mediation within the Reception theory, where producers will recycle themes and characters in order to drive the narrative and to appeal to the audiences. This audience collects information  and forms their own perspective if they constantly view the same charcsters perpetuated via the media, they may form a political bias, learning to potentially dominant, oppositional or negotiated readings. 

Hall also believes that an invisible set of rules help to govern and dictate our behaviours, based upon what we consume from media industries. He believes that political opinions and biases build the foundations of political ideologies of the public, leading to the re-inforcement of legitimacy through parliament and its systems by reporting. Additionally, the audience may create ‘situated logics’, actively and selectively filtering information portrayed to them through newspapers by selecting articles orientated around their knowledge and past experiences within society.

Here is my PowerPoint which I made at the beginning of Media Studies in Year 12, allowing you to identify where I have expanded and elaborated in my knowledge:

Stuart Hall Reception Theory