Reception Theory - Stuart Hall - 1980

The theory demonstrates that even though one message is sent out that not one understanding is made from the text and allows for a media text to be consumed individually and takes in to consideration the meaning of a text and the relationship an individual person may understand from this in connection to sociological factors.

Hall wrote about 3 different types of audience readings of the text.

Audience types: 

·         Dominant or preferred – completely agree with the chosen message by the producer

·         Negotiated  -Partial agreement, opinion is presented ending in compromise

·         Oppositional – Disagree completely and rejects the preferred reading

There are a few reasons that effect which reading we take. Which are:

·         Life experience

·         Mood at the time of viewing

·         Age

·         Culture

·         Belief

·         Gender

An example of a negotiated reading of a video is Robin Thickes 'Blurred Lines' song.
Robin Thicke says his single Blurred Lines is actually about his actress wife Paula Patton and defended the song claiming that the erotic and seemingly aggressive lyrics were harmless and intended to celebrate his 20 year relationship with wife. But although many people see the song as harmless, the song has set off an outrage with many people with them claiming it was deeply offensive and derogatory towards women given controversial lyrics such as 'I know you want it' and 'let me liberate ya'. With the original video being removed from Youtube after so many complaints. This is an extreme example of conflicting opinions on a media product.
Which is why I mentioned it as I want the message of my music video to be clear. My music video is based on a song about love and death so I wanted it to be clear what it was about using symbols stereotyped or mentioned with the lyrics and then using a couple in the video.