Theories

Stuart Hall's Reception Theory

Hall stated that communication is a process involving encoding by producers and decoding by audiences.  This was started in 1973 from his essay "encoding and decoding in the television discourse". He said that there are 3 way in which it can they are decoded by audiences;

1) The dominant position: audience accepts the intended meaning from the product.

2) The negotiated position: the audience acknowledges some parts of the message originally encoded but adapts the rest of the message based on their own personal experiences.

3) The oppositional position: the encoded message is understood by the audience but disagreed with.

This advert is a perfect example of reception theory, this advert divides persons opinions.  Example of such diverse opinions are; Preferred reading: We want to go out and eat a Big Mac.  Oppositional reading: This is unhealthy i can't eat it.  Negotiated: I want to go and have one, but i need to eat healthily, maybe another day.

This theory seems quite accurate, in that of the different responses of audience in regards to products or services.  An advantage of this theory is that it allows for businesses to gage the response of their target audience while a disadvantage is that those that fall into the "grey area" can't be categorised.