AUDIENCE RESPONSES
AUDIENCE RESPONSES The ways in which audiences can be described. How audiences are constructed by the producers of media texts. How audiences are positioned. The ways in which different audiences respond to, use and interpret texts.
AUDIENCE C O N S I D E R AT I O N S Audiences are not as mass. They are complex and sophisticated in their responses. Different social and cultural experiences affect audiences’ responses to a range of texts. Audiences are made up of individuals who bring social and cultural experiences to their interpretations of any text which may alter the messages they receive from the text.
AUDIENCE POSITIONING Stuart Hall (Research 1973), suggested that texts were encoded by the producers of the texts to contain certain meanings related to the social and cultural background of the creator of the text. However, once the reader of the text decodes the text then the meanings intended may change.
HALL - 3 MAIN PERSPECTIVES Preferred or dominant readings – this is where the audience interprets the text as closely to the way in which the producer of the text intended.
Negotiated readings – Where the audience adjusts and negotiates with themselves in terms of how they receive the text. The audience may agree with some elements of the text and disagree with others e.g. In a magazine article where they are asked to empathise with a situation they would not normally accept.
Oppositional or resistant readings – this is where the audience finds themselves in conflict with the text due to their culture or beliefs or experiences. For instance, a narrative in a soap opera that views a woman who is having an affair sympathetically will encourage a resistant reading in a person whose culture is against adultery.
AUDIENCE C O N S I D E R AT I O N S Audiences are not as mass. They are complex and sophisticated in their responses. Different social and cultural experiences affect audiences’ responses to a range of texts. Audiences are made up of individuals who bring social and cultural experiences to their interpretations of any text which may alter the messages they receive from the text.
AUDIENCE POSITIONING Stuart Hall (Research 1973), suggested that texts were encoded by the producers of the texts to contain certain meanings related to the social and cultural background of the creator of the text. However, once the reader of the text decodes the text then the meanings intended may change.
HALL - 3 MAIN PERSPECTIVES Preferred or dominant readings – this is where the audience interprets the text as closely to the way in which the producer of the text intended.
Negotiated readings – Where the audience adjusts and negotiates with themselves in terms of how they receive the text. The audience may agree with some elements of the text and disagree with others e.g. In a magazine article where they are asked to empathise with a situation they would not normally accept.
Oppositional or resistant readings – this is where the audience finds themselves in conflict with the text due to their culture or beliefs or experiences. For instance, a narrative in a soap opera that views a woman who is having an affair sympathetically will encourage a resistant reading in a person whose culture is against adultery.
