Audience Theories (The Receptions Analysis Theory)

The theory was put forward by Professor Stuart Hall and looks at how audiences interact with a media text, taking into account their situated culture. The theory suggests that social and daily experiences can affect the way an audience reads a media text and reacts to it.

What does the theory suggest?	Strengths?	Weaknesses?
Audiences are seen as active producers of meaning, rather than as merely consumers of media meanings. They make sense of media texts according to their social position and their gender.	This approach values highly the specific, personal and contextualised responses of individuals and groups. People’s life experiences are important influences which enable them to make active choices as members of media audiences.	The readings and responses of the audience are given more emphasis rather than the institutional aspects of the media. Some researchers can get side-tracked into analysing audience lifestyles, and thus media reception is sometimes neglected in favour of a more holistic sociological approach.