Media Texts: Stuart Hall

Halls Theory

According to the theory, audiences can have three different reactions to a media text, whether it be a film, documentary or newspaper:

1. Dominant, or Preferred, Reading - how the director/creator wants the audience to view the media text;
2. Opposition Reading - when the audience rejects the preferred reading, and creates their own meaning of the text;
3. Negotiated Reading - a compromise between the dominant and opposition readings, where the audience accepts parts of the director's views, but has their own views on parts as well.

Film posters: This is England & Quadrophenia analysation

You can clearly see the similarities between both posters, and so do the films. Both film address unity, violence, media and brands. In the quadrophenia poster we can see the characters standing in a similar pose to the characters from this is england. The colours in the This Is England poster are similar to that in the Quadrophenia poster with the red,blue and white font. Except I believe that this colours instead of being used to represent The Who are used to represent the colours of the british flag as the film has an underlying theme of racism which is associated with the skin head culture at this time. The background colours are not black and white like the Quadrophenia poster but they are very dull and bland grey colours. This is again sets the mood of the film, possibly depression with not much prosperity for these young people, as at the time this film was set (80’s) employment was at an all time low. Although the quadprohenia characters style is different. They are pictured wearing suits with clean cut medium length haircuts indicating they are mods. This therefore show’s their rebellion through the use of scooters and rivalry with the rockers and the infamous fights on brighton beach. This poster also uses a black and white background, this would be possibly to indicate the time period of the film (60’s). In contrast with the iconic red,white and blue colours of the quadrophenia font that is related to the band The Who, who came up with the idea for the film. The slogan “a way of life” also shows the dedication these youth’s have with their chosen mod style. The way the font is written in the Quadrophenia shows two things. Firstly the Q is the iconic 60’s symbol. Also the font that the tag line ”a way of life” is written in a graffiti like font representing their rebellious youth persona. Overall the Quadrophenia poster represents these characters as true mods, and that in most aspects it has taken over their lives. The posture of the sets of characters on both posters are extremely similar. Their relaxed disposition shows they are comfortable in their surroundings, and being part of their group.