Audience theory- Reception theory

The Reception theory was developed by Start Hall at Birmingham University in the 1970's. When a producer constructs a text it is encoded with a meaning or message that the producer wishes to convey to the audience. The audiences will correctly decode the message or meaning and understand what the producer was trying to say. However, sometimes the audience may reject or fail to correctly understand the message.
Stuart Hall identified 3 types of audience readings (or decoding) of the text:

• Dominant or preferred
• Negotiated
• Oppositional

Dominant 

• Where the audience decodes the message as the producer wants them to do and broadly agrees with it

Example: in my music video I wanted the audience to feel sad as the actor did when she lost her boyfriend. So I'm sure that since there are sad scenes in my music video, the audience will feel sad as-well, and grieve with the girl who has lost her boyfriend. 

Negotiated

• Where the audience accepts, rejects or refines elements of the text in light of previously held viewers. 

An example of this can be used in my music video because the audience can choose whether to feel sad or not. My encoding of my message is to make the audience feel sad though, some of them may not see that and therefore decode my message. 

Oppositional 

• Where the dominant meaning is recognized but rejected for cultural, political or ideological reasons. 

In my music video I believe that this doesn't happen because i don't believe anyone would decode my message and oppose it because it's a sad video of someone close who has died. The audience may also, relate to that to someone who they have loved and has passed away.