Task 2a - Reception Theory

Reception Theory

Summary

Reception theory is a theory that suggests our background, upbringing and moral values have a big impact on the way we react to media. The idea is that any media text is encoded by the producer with their values and messages, and it is likely that if an individual holds the same values as the producer, they will agree with their opinion or standpoint. Often the producer uses the media text as a way of conveying their message to a mass audience and gauging how a large group of people react to a certain topic or subject. There are three types of reactions the audience might have to the media text:

1) Dominant or Preferred
2) Negotiated
3) Oppositional 

A dominant viewer will completely accept the messages or values encoded in the text as they producer intended. This viewer will agree with all of the messages that the producer placed in the media text this will likely be due to it having been marketed correctly. An example of a dominant view would be when the adverts for the new iPhone are released, boasting "ease of use" and "friendly usability" then people looking for something simple and easy to understand in their phone, then they're likely to be excited by the product and would not consider purchasing any other brand.

A neogtiated viewer is someone who will partially agree with the media text, but will also have their own opinions on the matter and might agree with the opposing viewpoint as well. They are usually considered the compromise to the argument. They will shape the message and values around their own values based on their upbringing and background. Using the same example as above, an individual may see these iPhone adverts and like the sound of the ease of use and friendly usability and would enjoy having those, but also desire some of the qualities that only an Android phone can offer, making them a negotiated viewer.

An oppositional viewer will completely reject whatever message the producer has encoded into the media text, and will actively argue against whatever the message is with their own opposing opinion. They are usually considered the most argumentative and opinionated viewer. Again using the same example as above, an individual might see the iPhone advert but be a huge fan of Android phones and outright hate Apple so they would be taking the oppositional standpoint and outright rejecting the idea of buying and iPhone.

Advantages

- It is easy to group opinions of people based on upbringing and cultural background
- The theory applies to almost every media text, including films, TV, the radio and social media

Disadvantages

- It assumes that just because people have the same upbringing, that they will agree on the exact same things
- A vast number of people are most likely going to be negotiated viewers, as you find that most will agree on some opinions but not others 
 

Theorists

The most notable theorist of the Reception Theory in media context is a man named Stuart Hall as he helped to develop the theory into media and communication studies in the 1970s  rather than just looking at the literary studies of the theory. In his model called the encoding/decoding model of communication, he stated hat a media text goes through stages of encoding and decoding. The media producer would be encoding their messages into the text, and the viewers would be developing opinions, therefore decoding the messages. He believed that the text would be not just be passively absorbed by a reader, listener or viewer, but instead they would react in a certain way based on their cultural upbringing and general moral values. 

Examples of this theory

I explored an example in more depth under the "Task 2b - Bowling For Columbine (2002)" post above.