Audience responses, reception theory and the end of audience

Overview

Negotiated reading of a news story, oppositional reading of a newspaper front page and main criticism of cultivation theory.

What you need to know

Answer each one before you reveal it.

Questions from this subtopic

Each one with the model answer underneath.

1. 1

   What does Hall's encoding and decoding model claim?

   Model answer

   Hall argues that communication involves encoding by producers and decoding by audiences. Meaning is completed by the reader rather than fixed by the text.

2. 2

   How can a newspaper front page produce an oppositional reading?

   Model answer

   A reader who rejects the paper's politics understands the framing and refuses it. The intended meaning is grasped and then opposed.

3. 3

   How does a newspaper encourage a dominant-hegemonic reading?

   Model answer

   Headline, photograph and editorial line all point towards one interpretation. A regular reader who shares the paper's politics accepts it.

4. 4

   Give an example of a negotiated reading of a news story.

   Model answer

   A reader can accept the facts of a report while rejecting the paper's judgement of who is to blame. Part of the message is resisted.

5. 5

   Why does reception theory matter for a newspaper's political influence?

   Model answer

   A paper cannot simply install its views in its readers. Influence depends on how far readers accept, negotiate or reject the framing.

6. 6

   Give an example of an oppositional reading of a newspaper front page.

   Model answer

   A reader who supported the government might read the Mirror's Partygate coverage as partisan exaggeration. The message is understood but deliberately rejected.

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