Representation Theory

Representation Theory

1. An active audience theory which sees the audience being engaged actively in the interpretation of media texts rather than passive customers. The idea is that individuals interpret messages in different ways due to their background or social upbringing.

   • Demonstrating how when one message is sen out that not one understanding is received.
   • For example (the image of) Abbey Clancy her dress she is wearing extremely revealing but individuals may interpret this look in a different way. i.e some may view her as pretty whereas some may view her being an attention seeker

2. Study of Semiotics

   • Stuart Hall claimed that media texts go through phrases of encoding and decoding by the producer, that the texts contain different ideologies of the people who made the text
     • Decoding is where an audience views the text and interprets their own ideologies into the text. In cases the audience will not response how the producer intended them to respond

3. Encoding and Decoding

   • When a producer creates a text it is encoded with a meaning or a message that they want to portray to the mass audience ( a large audience i.e family) also known as preferred reading
     • Stuart Hall identified three types of audience readings of the text
       • Dominant Reading
         • When the audience decodes a message as the producer wants them to do and broadly agrees with it e.g watching a political speech and agreeing with it
       • Negotiated reading
         • Where the audience accepts, rejects or refines elements of text in the light of previously held news e.g either agreeing or disagreeing with a political text or just not interested in it
       • Oppositional reading
         • When the dominant meaning is recognised but rejected for cultural, political and ideological reasons

4. Factors which effect how we view text

   • Life experience
   • Mood at the time of viewing
   • Age
   • Culture
   • Beliefs
   • Gender

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