Stuart Hall's Reception Theory

Stuart Hall's Reception Theory

1. Preferred Reading

   • Also referred to as dominant or hegemonic.
   • Reader fully shares the texts code
   • Reader accepts and reproduces the preferred reading

2. Negotiated Reading

   • Reader partly shares the texts codes
   • Broadly accepts the preferred reading
   • Sometimes resists and modifies preferred reading in a way which reflects their own position, experiences and interests

3. Oppositional Reading

   • Also referred to as counter-hegemonic
   • Social situation places the reader in a directly oppositional relation to the dominant code
   • Preferred reading is understood but not accepted and therefore rejected due to not sharing the text's code
   • Alternative frame of reference. For example, feminists