Stuart Hall is a leading sociological thinker of the late twentieth and early 21st century's, whose writings were often encompass media perspectives. Even those he was thought as a sociologist and cultural studies theorist, he taught media in London in the sixties. Rather then just exploring how texts make meaning, as was the predominant practice of his analytical forerunners, for Hall, the meaning of the text is not inherently in the text itself. From this Hall claimed that no amount of analysis can find the texts actual one meaning because different people who encounter the text will make different interpretations.
This can be applied to other media formats such as films, TV shows etc, as we as an audience don't all like the same characters portrayed in those media texts but we are all able to see the same representations. The technical and symbolic codes which construct the representations we perceive are the same as the denotation is often the same. The thoughts that the producers or directors want us to think and what we actually think might be two different things. This reading, according to Hall depends on our social positioning an example is the level of our education and experience and what are occupations are.
Reception theory defined:
Reception theory is a version of reader response literary theory that emphasizes the reader's reception of a literary text. It is more generally called audience reception in the analysis of communications models. In literary studies, reception theory originated from the work of Hans-Robert Jauss in the late 1960s.
Reception theory is an approach to textual analysis which puts more emphasis on the audience, the meaning is made at the moment of consumption. At that moment, the individual audience member considers the representations presented to them in the context of their own values, opinions and experiences. Therefore, people with similar socio-cultural backgrounds are likely to make similar readings of the same texts. The theory also follows, that if the audiences values, opinions and experiences are similar to the producers, then they are likely to read the meaning of the text in the way it was intended, or at least which is very close to it.
So what is an audience:
An audience is a group of people, who are targeted by producers or directors, in which they use media formats such as TV programmes, films, music etc, and these media formats are used by directors and producers to target people of specific ages, gender, ethnicity etc.
The audience targeted by me when producing the opening sequence of a film:
In relation to who were my intended audience were, I would say that the age of which my film opening sequence was aimed at was of the age of fifteen to twenty five years of age and it was aimed at both genders specifically, but I would say that it mas more specifically aimed at males because of the context displayed in the film opening sequence and as the males would be able to relate to the central protagonist more then females would. The intended audience for the films opening sequence when considering the socio-economics were of the categories of C2, C2 and D. In relation to audience I would say that the psycho graphic in relation to the audience is that its mainly aimed at people of similar values of how they perceive capitalism and how they identify with the values presented in the film, which are usually associated with movements such as Marxism and post-modernism. I would say that people would interpret the film differently because some people would say that the film interprets the film as a film which criticises liberal values and dominant ideologies as it portrays the negative representations and values which are associated with capitalism and this is portrayed through the closing of the safe door, which conveys how I perceive the protagonist as someone who is trapped in his own world as it reflects post-modernist, concepts of hypperreality, simulation and implosion. Marxists would say those that it presents an accurate view on capitalism as it conveys how working class people are being exploited by the bourgeoisie.
Task-Stuart Halls article on "Preferred, negotiated/oppositional reading":
Description of my target audience:
An description of my intended target audience for my films opening sequence is that my target audience is aimed at people of the ages of fifteen to twenty five years of age, consisting of socio-economic groups of C1,C2 to D because I feel that my intended target audience would be able to understand the themes employed in the film's opening sequence and would be able to understand the growing influence of Italian neorealism on the film. I would also say that even those my film is aimed at both genders, I think that it would appeal to males more then females as it would appeal to them more because of the hybridity of its genre and males would be able to relate to the central protagonist more then that of females would be able to.
The Preferred reading of my production:
The preferred which I was trying to represent to my intended target audience when producing the opening sequence of my film was that I was trying to represent a Marxist and post-modernist perspective towards my intended target audience. The reason why I say I was trying to represent a Marxist view was because in a scene within the opening sequence of the film, I was using a boxing montage which was used as metaphor to signify the positive representations of capitalism as the scene promotes masculinity, idealism etc. In the film when I compared the montage sequence of the boxer boxing, I then compared it to another scene in which the audience are employed to be a spectator in the scene of where we see the central protagonist drinking in a darkened litten room. This scene was used as a way to representing my own ideological perspective on capitalism from a Marxist view, as I employed this scene to convey the negative representations which can be associated with capitalism as the scene and central protagonist is a reflection of my intentions of how I see the working class being exploited by capitalism and by the bourgeoisie. My preferred perspective or reading of my production is that it promotes a post-modernist view, as it exposes how we are constructed into a piece of reality of where we aren't able to find some objective truth within the world and it relates to post-modernist concepts of hyppereality, simulation and implosion, which is presented in the scene of where we see the protagonist drinking which signify's that his trying to find some kind of objective truth within life or purpose. Whereas the closing of the safe door promotes as I see humanity trapped within a fixated and false reality of where they aren't able to escape.
What negotiated and oppositional readings does my production offer?
The negotiated and oppositional reading that I would say is provided my production is that it offers the oppositional reading of presenting the working class as a someone who is easily, corrupted by greed and money. This is shown through the scene of the protagonist sorting out and counting his money. Another oppositional reading would be that it presents the working class person as someone who has no purpose within life and can be easily exploited through the political system of capitalism. Whereas I would say that the negotiated reading which is represented or even signified by the film's opening sequence is that it represents capitalism in a negative representation and a character that instead of being able to become a better person within his life and find his sense of purpose and identity, he finds out that he can become a better person if he doesn't fall to his decisive traits he will be able to find his purpose but he doesn't want to challenge capitalism because it would be an rejection of his criminality.
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