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.