Stuart Hall Theories

Stuart Hall is a cultural theorist and sociologist who came up with theories linking to how people think towards a media text such as the Reception theory and the encoding/decoding model

Reception Theory
This is when the audience will have different opinions towards a media text depending whether they have similar sociocultural backgrounds are likely to make similar readings. This is because if the audience's opinions, values and experiences can be related towards the producer's. They also depend on; who the audience is and what their social position is.

Encoding/Decoding Model
This model is used for communication between the producer and the audience through several stages which Stuart Hall called 'Moments'. This is to help with audience consumption because he considered that audiences as not only active but also a group of individuals rather than an undifferentiated 'mass'. The producer (encoder) will encode the media text while the audience (decoder) will decode it differently accordingly through interpretations, social situations and personal background. The first is the Moment of encoding which is the creation of the text, when forms, structures, codes and conventions are used to design a text with an intended meaning. The Moment of the text is the symbolic existence of the text as it is published. The  Moment of decoding is when the individual with a relatable set of values, opinions and experiences.

Preferred Reading
This is when the individual accepts and shares to the text's ideology, which is essentially likely to be their target audience because they have the same opinion and attitude as the producer.

Negotiated Reading
This is when the individual generally accepts the text and it puts them outside of their specific target audience because they may question the representations of the text because some parts won't relate to the individual's interests.

Oppositional Reading
This is when the individual completely disagrees with the text because their values and attitudes are very different from the producer, therefore there is no decoding and won't accept the whole text, possibly not even a little.