Stuart Hall (media audience and representation)

Stuart Hall (media audience and representation)-

Reception theory- Since the 1980's, a group of theory emerged around reception. This focuses on the condition in which audiences 'read' media texts, and how this contrasts with the intended meaning of the producer of the text. 

Stuart Hall (1980)- Came up with the encoding and decoding model. 

Encoding- media put in

-The intended message from The Sun newspaper
Decoding- meaning taken out e.g. the audience interpretation

-For example, an encoded ideology in many news broadcasts, is the representation of refugees as swarms of invaders, coming to 'our' country to steal jobs  / benefits / housing. This contributes to and reinforces existing prejudices around 'the Other'.  

-Other ideologies might include those around consumption and the ideology that consuming (buying) material goods increases one's happiness. These ideologies reflect and reinforce existing dominant ideologies within society.  
-These may also reinforce other theories such as the post-colonial model suggested by Paul Gilroy around the British construction of 'us and them'.

-Stuart Hall also recognised that not all audiences read texts in the same way. He recognised that most texts are potentially polysemic. But he argued that texts are structured in such a way that their dominant or preferred meaning limits the scope for different audience interpretations.

Polysemic- Where they are lots of potential meanings in the media

Different types of audience readings-

-A dominant or preferred position is when the audience takes the full preferred meaning offered by the text, and the ideological assumptions behind the messages.

(encoded meaning)

-A negotiated position is when there is a mixture of adaptation and opposition to the dominant codes.  So the audience negotiates the meaning to fit with their 'lived experience.'

-An oppositional position is when the preferred reading is understood but opposed or re-drawn drawing on alternative values and attitudes. The ideological assumptions are rejected.

Task- Find an example of a controversial news story that you have followed recently.  Draw up some examples of comments and reactions from the audience that are dominant, negotiated and oppositional.
-A controversial story in which I chosen was called 'Teacher suspended for calling transgender pupil a girl'. This story is controversial as, many online users are being very vocal and opinionated on this incident. This is because, the teacher is being suspended for using the wrong pronoun when referring to the pupil. Many people believe that this one small mistake can cause his career at stake, this is because the school was clearly big on respect of the LGBT - Transgender community, and so they thought that they had to take drastic measures as a pupil's preferred gender pronoun was ignored. 

Dominant reading- The teacher is clearly remorseful for his actions by using the wrong pronoun when talking to the pupil e.g.‘I said it was only one incident for which I had apologised, but he insisted the investigation would go ahead'.

Negotiated reading- The teacher has definitely made a mistake but, he seems apologetic about it. Many people agree that the teacher should be forgiven as, this incident can ruin his career in any profession e.g. one user tweeted 'Oh come on. It was a mistake. The world is going mad!!' and another user said 'How ridiculous! I really hope he does not lose his job over what seems to me to be an innocent and easy mistake to make. Also, he apologised immediately. PC madness strikes again'.

Oppositional reading- The teacher should have been more careful when talking to the boy and should keep his own religious values to himself. The mother of the child has done the right thing to report this issue as, the teacher has used the wrong pronoun in numerous occasions despite, being corrected by the pupil. By suspending the teacher, numerous people won't take this issue lightly and stop misgendering people e.g. 'Mr Sutcliffe had also called him by a female pronoun on several other occasions, according the Mail on Sunday' and 'Joshua Sutcliffe believed that it was not wrong to refer to someone who was born female as a girl'. Many people might say that his religious views shouldn't be expressed as, numerous students might find it highly offensive and rude.

Stuart Hall on representation-

-Stuart Hall notes that representation is not about whether the media reflects or distorts reality, as this implies there can only be one 'true' meaning. Instead representation is about the many meanings generated, drawing on a range of factors. Sometimes the meaning of a representation is defined by what is present, absent or different. Hall describes meaning and representation as 'contested'.  

Through preferred meanings, representation can carry power.  Hall encourages us to go inside representations such as stereotypes, and deconstruct them.

-Stuart Hall was particularly interested in the representation of 'the other', working classes, and women, since these groups are often represented in contentious ways, so this should be contested.  He drew heavily on his own experiences as an immigrant in the highly elitist Oxford university.  Hall also acknowledged the role of on mass culture, such as advertising, soap operas, music video, and other popular media, rather than rarefied, so-called 'high culture' such as Shakespeare and classical music.

-Stuart Hall was all about reframing britishness
-He mainly focused on class, religion and race in mainstream media and 'the other'
-He was an immigrant from Jamaica and worked in the United Kingdom from 1951.
-He came from an elitists university (Oxford university)
-Popular culture, soap operas, magazines, celeb, gossip
-Media for Hall was a way of contesting for representations of black/ working class etc.