#practice question

Firstly, deriving meaning from a text is an active process and audiences can find their own meaning within texts. Producers may aim to establish a preferred reading for a text- in terms of Stuart Hall’s reception theory- but they cannot guarantee that this meaning is embraced by audiences. For example, in Keeping Up With the Kardashians, Kim is portrayed by the producers as being a role model figure; classy and funny (the dominant reading), however the audience may reject this viewpoint and perceive her to be trashy and talentless (the oppositional reading) based upon other information they have been provided by the media about her. The viewer could also take a negotiated reading, where they accept the producer’s preferred reading but have opinions of their own as well.

Secondly, responses can also be affected by the variety of people’s worldview. What I mean by this is that everyone has different levels of acquired knowledge and life experiences - these factors can cause someone’s opinion on something to be altered. For example, those brought up in a setting with patriarchal ideals may accept the message of magazines such as Cosmopolitan which put out the message that a woman’s role is to please a man, however others may reject this ideology and challenge it, such as those interested in social issues or who were brought up in a more modern, progressive environment- e.g. people from the ‘aspirers’ bracket when referring to Young and Rubicam’s theory.

A further explanation of different responses is Blulmer and Katz’s ‘Uses and Gratifications’ theory. This seeks to discover what ‘pleasures’ the audience takes from a text. This may be surveillance- or in other words information, what they can learn from a text that they can use in life. An audience may use the Newspaper or a TV news show to do this. There is also personal identification which refers to the ability to compare your life to that of characters and situations within the media text. For example, with the film ‘500 days of summer’, audience may relate to the main character Tom because they are hopelessly romantic/ feel like a social outcast. Another aspect is Personal relationships. This may be when the audience can use the media texts to strengthen relationships in their life- for example the Wii Fit, this is a game that can be played with friends and family which encourages activity and engagement. Finally, diversion, which simply refers to using the media text as a means to escape from reality. An example being a film such as Avengers, a highly exciting and fantasy-filled film which helps the audience to escape harsh reality. The audience can apply any of these aspects to any kind of media, as one piece of media can mean different things to different people.