Stuart Hall - Audience Reception Theory

Stuart Hall, the son of an accountant, was born in Kingston, Jamaica in 1932. He moved to England with his mother in 1951. They lived in Bristol before Hall took his place at Oxford University. His Reception theory is a version of reader response literary theory that emphasises the reader's reception of a literary text. It is more generally called audience reception in the analysis of communications models.

His audience reception theory are as follows;

Preferred Reading- Where the audiences accept the producers intended ideas and messages.

Negotiated Reading- Where the audiences accept some aspects of a producer's ideas and messages, but also reject/question somethings and bring in their own ideas.

Oppositional Reading- Where the audiences reject the preferred reading and create a new opposing interpretation.

When these are applied to a modern day music video; Everytime - Britney Spears

Preferred Reading- Britney is not the far different to the normal average girls. This would help her to connect to  younger girls that have issues and makes her more reliable.
Negotiated Reading- They underdtand where shes coming from with her problems but she should have found a better way to express them for example, a break up or her crying, something not as graphic as her chosen music video.
Oppositional Reading- It's wrong, people look up to her they think its an acceptable way out of their problems if they see the video and that its encouragng her fans to self abuse.

By learning Stuart Hall's audience reception theory it will help me to decide whether I would like to use it in my music video. It also will help my apply this to my music video if I chose to use it. In my music video I am thinking of creating a performance/story therefore if I chose to create a conflict I will apply Hall's theory to my text and try and ensure my audience get the preferred reading of my text.