Reception theory: blog tasks

 Part 1) Applying Reception theory to adverts

Look back at the adverts you have been analysing in last week's lessons on Reading an Image and media codes (RBK 50 Cent and one of your choice). 

1) What are the preferred, negotiated and oppositional readings for the RBK 50 Cent advert?

The preferred reading: the preferred reading of the 50 Cent advert is that 50 cent is  a  great influence  to a younger generations as he is and he was what the younger genetration  should want to be like as he has  achieved fame an riches.

the negotiated reading : Is that even though 50 cent has lived a negative lifestyle he has turned his life around for the better and has become extremely successful.

The oppositional readings :RBK  are glorifying 50 cent previous  lifestyle of crime and what he promotes in his gangster rap lyrics.

2) What are the preferred, negotiated and oppositional readings for the advert of your own choice that you analyzed for last week's work?

the preferred reading of the Pepsi advert is  that  no matter what generation everyone can and does drinks Pepsi  and it doesn't matter what artist or culture you grew up with.

the  negotiated reading :  is  that everyone from those generations like Pepsi but if youre not from those generations you cant drink Pepsi.  

oppositional reading:  you had to grow up in one of those generations with those artist to like  Pepsi  and that you're not a real fan of  Michael Jackson, Ray Charles or  Britney spears if you don't drink Pepsi

Remember to highlight or bold any media terminology you are using.

Part 2) Reception theory factsheet #218

Use our extremely useful A Level Media Factsheet archive to find Factsheet #218 Spotlight on Stuart Hall: Encoding, Decoding and Reception Theory. Read the factsheet and complete the following tasks and questions:

1) Complete Activity 1 on page 2 of the factsheet. Choose a media text you have enjoyed and apply the sender-message-channel-receiver model to the text. There is an example of how to do this in the factsheet (the freediving YouTube video).

1. A SENDER

50 cent  is the producer. 

2. A MESSAGE

The story 50 cent wanted to tell

3. A CHANNEL

 the tv show is the way 50 cent wanted to convey the message 

4. A RECEIVER

 the audience that understands the message that there is no loyalty among thieves and that the past will always follow you somehow and that  those who try to live both lives of citizen and criminals end up dead or in jail.

2) What are the definitions of 'encoding' and 'decoding'? Encoding simply means constructing a message using a shared

code and language. and decoding is  when Someone else can then read it who shares

that cultural understanding and is able to decode it.

3) Why did Stuart Hall criticize the sender-message-channel-receiver model? 

Stuart deemed it as linear It focuses on the stages of a ‘process’ but doesn’t tell us much about the complexity of the

message or what the receiver does with the message when they

receive it

4) What was Hall's circuit of communication model? Hall proposed instead a model which was non-linear – in

other words, the different ‘moments’ in the process (Hall's term for each aspect of the model, which he called a circuit of communication) could feed back into each other. They could work independently of one another in the construction of meaning and the uses audiences make of what they consume would therefore vary.

5) What does the factsheet say about Hall's Reception theory? to Reception Theory, which challenged the idea that audiences all understood media text in  a broadly similar way. It’s a way of exploring connections and relationships in the decoding process, the ‘non-linear’ processes between the construction of representations and audience interpretations of them. Reception theory is a core part of Hall’s work because he believed that media products as complex signs are polysemic,

6) Look at the final page. How does it suggest Reception theory could be criticised?

• Some people have pointed out that Hall’s model assumes that

everyone is able to recognise the dominant or hegemonic

reading. We don’t know for certain whether this is always

the case.

• Hall’s work is politically inclined to seek out evidence that

popular culture has a role in reinforcing cultural hegemony,

a shared agreement of values that helps preserve class

structures.

• Hall’s theory as considered valuable for drawing attention

to the significance of the audience in bringing their own

meanings to the media they consume.

• The theory is valued for its recognition that communication

between the audience and producers of a text is not a

straightforward, one-way process.