UNIT 26 - Reception theory

The Reception Theory

The reception theory was first originated by Halls Robert in the late 1960's. The idea of this theory is that the theory is an interpretation of the viewer as an individual. This could mean what the viewer gets from the production or just what they might think the message of the film is. The Receptipn Theory is broken up into five different parts, these parts are:

• Encoding

• Decoding

• Preffered / Dominant reading 

• Oppositional reading 

• Negotiated reading

Here are some examples of these pillars of the reception theory in the movie spy. In this film there is an evil villain within who is trying to get hold of a tactical nuclear weapon. The villain has all the details on the spy agencies personel so the agency had no choice but to send one of their secretary to do the job. The secretary is a woman in her late 40's and really overweight. At first you wouldn't imagine of think that a woman like her would be a spy due to her in-experience and because of the way she looks. In the end we see that she is very effective in her job. She is very brave and skill full. the message I get from this is that we shouldn't judge a book by its cover, meaning that we shouldn't base our views just on what we see. this is deciding as it is what the audience get from the film. 

Furthermore, another element of the reception theory is Encoding. Encoding is what the director wants us to get from the film; like a hidden message. In my opinion I think that the message that was meant to be given by the director was the same as what I decoded from the film which was don't judge or base opinions on what you see. In this one specific example the director may have been successful in what he wanted the audience to decode. The director had used many ways in which he had his these messages without actually saying it in the first place. The audience could and should be able to get that just from watching the film. 

Another factor of the Receptipn theory is Preffered/dominant reading. Preffered reading is when audiences respond to the production the way media producers want/expect them to. this is what the directors want us to get from the production. Like a message they should want us to interpret. Negotiated reading is when the audience partly agree with parts of the production. So when the audience do understand the message within the film but not all of it. So for example in the movie spy another message from the director might of been 'anyone can be a spy'. Some people may agree with that where's often might go with the more deeper thought. It creates a controversial opinion.

Oppositional reading is when the audience are in complete disagreement with the meaning of the production. So when the viewers find the message wrong or not very effective. An example of this would be that if I'm the movie 'Spy' the message was 'only men can be spy's' then the audience would have a strong disagreement and this would probably lead to the movie to be a failure in terms of likeability as views for equality with women and men are seen highly upon in this time. 

In conclusion, the Reception theory plays a huge roll on any film production as it links the directors views to the audience. Each of the factors of the reception theory give us views to take on board. On my opinion this theory is very useful in terms of getting a message from the producer.