Stuart Hall

STUART HALL - CULTURAL THEORIST.

Stuart Hall (1980) discovered the theory of encoding/decoding. Hall discovered different types of readings and came up with a theory in order to describe the effects media texts have on an audience. Firstly, he discovered the dominant ideology, typically known as the 'preferred reading' in a media text. This is what readers, viewers and listeners are lead to believe, but do not necessarily have to believe. This is done by the way something is portrayed in the media. Secondly, the 'oppositional reading' are conflict ideas with the preferred reading. This is where ideas of an audience do not meet the creator’s intentions of the media text. Finally, the 'negotiated reading' is a non bias view, where the audience take both preferred and negotiated readings into account.

Hall's ideology has been criticised, for being 'at the expense of the importance of ownership and control' - Stevenson 1995:35