Reception Theory & Audience Readings

Reception Theory

In the 1980’s Hall and Morley suggested that audience make sense of the media according to their backgrounds, including their gender, age, their life experiences and ethnicity. All these aspects affects audiences responses to text.  For example Geordie Shore follows several 20-somethings from Newcastle as they party and have sex. If the audience are of a similar age or have had similar experiences with the characters from show, this will encourage them to watch this programme and others like it.

Preferred Audience Readings 

In the 1980’s Stuart Hall et al suggested that media texts are open to receive in a number of different ways, that is depended on the audience social and background. But the creators of the texts want the audience to accept the ‘preferred’ readings. For example Geordie Shaw Tv programme targets teenagers and young adults, some teenagers would take the preferred readings that going out partying and having sex nearly every night  with many of people is an positive thing to do.

Negotiated Reading

This theory is when the reader accepts both sides of the argument, they acknowledges the legitimacy but adapts according to their own social condition. Many audiences believe that Geordie Shaw is just a bunch of young adults going out drinking and having sex every night and find that the show is a bad example for teens and young adults. Although they can also whats highly entertaining about watch the characters in the show, and accept that the people in the show are making money from it, as its their career.

Oppositional Reading

This theory takes an alternative view from the preferred reading. From an adults point Geordie Shaw is highly inappropriate, and can show people get exploitation as sex objects, the programme is degrading and the characters are extremely negative role models for young adults.

Uses & Gratifications Theory

Uses & Gratifications Theory suggests that audiences active, not passive which is when audiences get the most out of the media their processing.

Diversion

This is when media allows you to escape from everyday problems and stress. It lets you temporary feel relaxed and lose yourself in the media texts. Geordie Shore is a media example where people can forget and relive themselves for stress in their lives as they watch and get entertained by the programme.

Personal Relationships

The media texts that audiences take view allows people to interact act with others indifferent ways, including people reviewing the programmes on television and radio shows, and social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter make it

easier for people to connect to others, by twittering and having a discussion about the show or following and liking pages of characters and actors that a connected to the show. Geordie Shore always allows their audience to have personal relationships to the show, by always reminding different ways to connect and talk about the show, including, twitter hashtags and Facebook pages.

Personal Identity

This is when a media texts helps the audience to relate to their own lives and get a sense of their own identity and reflect on their own experiences. Geordie Shore follows several 20-somethings from Newcastle as they party and hook up with each other. If the audience are of a similar age or live in a similar area they can maybe relate with the experiences that the characters go through in the show.

Surveillance

This is when the media provides the audience with information about the people of wider world and issues happening. Geordie Shore can educate people from around the world how characters from Newcastle in their 20’s act and the events they get into.

Dissolve: My Example

For my fade example, me and my group filmed a clip a section of people’s faces and used the dissolve to morph there faces into one another. The close ups of the people is to show the similarities between different people and show that even though they all have different lives, they are still all the same.

Cross-Cutting: My Example

In my film i’ve used cross cutting by joining a clip of an interrogation and a clip of someone running. As the clip goes on the speed of the cutting gets faster, this creates  The audience thinks that the person running is going to become connected to the interrogation scene. For example the audience may believe that the person running is going to come a save to man being interrogated or that the person running is the man later escaping. Their ideas will change when the man being  interrogated gets shot, which is when the audience really starts to question, who’s running? and why? The big revelation is that the man running looks exactly the same as the man that gets shot. This also develops a character arc as in the end the woman was right to question weather it was the same guy that stole the drugs, as in the end they shot the wrong guy.

Cross-Cutting

Cross Cutting is an editing technique used in film and video to establish action in two different locations, occurring at the same time. In this technique the camera will cut from one action to another. Cross cutting can be used to create suspense and excitement during a scene, for example in a chase sequence swapping from one person to another.