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Media Studies · Media Studies: Reading, Questioning and Creating Media

Different Audiences, Different Readings: Why Responses Vary

1.4About 65 minutes
Learning goals
  • I can explain why the same media text might prompt different responses from different audiences.
  • I can use preferred, negotiated and oppositional readings to describe responses.
  • I can link each response to specific audience factors and features of the text.

Words to know

encode
To build a meaning into a media text through choices.
decode
To interpret a media text using your own knowledge and experience.
preferred reading
A reading that accepts the meaning the producer intended (also called the dominant reading).
negotiated reading
A reading that accepts parts of the intended meaning and questions or adapts other parts.
oppositional reading
A reading that understands the intended meaning but rejects it.
context of viewing
Where, when, how and with whom an audience experiences a text.

Hook: same ad, different living rooms

An invented holiday commercial for a department store: a big family gathers in a snowy country house. Grandparents arrive, children open piles of gifts, everyone wears matching sweaters. Soft music. Text: Make it a holiday to remember.

Watch it with five different people and you might hear:

  • "That's so sweet. I love the holidays."
  • "Nice, but our celebrations look nothing like that."
  • "Our family celebrates a different holiday. Where are we?"
  • "It's a store telling me to spend money."
  • "I miss my grandparents. That made me sad."

None of these people is "wrong." Expectation 1.4 asks you to explain why the same media text prompts different responses.

Encoding and decoding

The British cultural theorist Stuart Hall described communication as two steps:

  • The producer encodes a message, building in a preferred meaning through choices.
  • Each audience member decodes it, using their own knowledge and experience.

Hall described three main ways to decode:

  1. Preferred (dominant) reading: you accept the meaning the producer intended.
  2. Negotiated reading: you accept parts and question or adapt other parts, often because your life is different from the one shown.
  3. Oppositional reading: you understand the intended meaning but reject it and read the text against itself.
ONE TEXTa holiday adPREFERRED readingaccepts the intended message:"Aww, I want that holiday."NEGOTIATED readingaccepts some, questions some:"Sweet, but not my family."OPPOSITIONAL readingrejects the message:"It's just selling stuff."Same text, three readings
Stuart Hall's three kinds of reading. The creator encodes a preferred meaning, but each audience member decodes it, and may accept, negotiate with or oppose it.

Why do responses differ?

Factors that shape a response include:

  • Age and generation: a song from the 1990s in an ad may feel nostalgic to parents and mean nothing to teens.
  • Culture, faith and language: jokes, symbols, holidays, colours and gestures carry different meanings in different cultures. A text that shows only one way of celebrating may feel welcoming to some viewers and exclusionary to others.
  • Lived experience: someone who has lost a grandparent, lives in a city apartment, or has a disability will notice different things.
  • Values and beliefs: someone who cares deeply about reducing waste may reject an ad that celebrates buying piles of gifts.
  • Knowledge: a hockey fan catches references a non-fan misses. Satire works only if you know what is being mocked.
  • Context of viewing: alone or with family, on a phone in a noisy bus or in a theatre, before or after a big news event.
  • Identity and representation: viewers respond strongly when they see people like themselves represented fairly, unfairly or not at all.
MEDIATEXTage andgenerationculture andlanguagelivedexperiencevalues andbeliefscontext ofviewingYOURREADINGEach viewer reads through different lenses(plus mood, prior knowledge, who you watch with...)
Audience factors act like lenses between a text and each viewer. Because everyone's lenses differ, the same text can prompt very different responses.
Worked example

Let's explain different audience responses

An invented 15-second video for a soft drink shows teens doing a dangerous-looking stunt on a frozen lake (a caption says Professional stunt team. Do not attempt.) with loud rock music and the slogan Live loud. Explain why each audience might respond differently: (a) a 15-year-old skateboarder, (b) a parent, (c) a person from a northern community who travels on ice roads in winter.

  1. Identify the preferred reading: the producer wants viewers to link the drink with excitement, youth and fearlessness.
  2. (a) 15-year-old skateboarder: likely preferred. The stunt, music and slogan match their values (thrills, self-expression) and age. They may admire the stunt and remember the brand.
  3. (b) Parent: likely negotiated or oppositional. Their role and values (protecting their teen) make them focus on risk. They may think "cool video, but I don't want my kid copying that," and may worry the tiny warning won't stop imitation.
  4. (c) Person who travels on ice roads: possibly oppositional. Their lived experience teaches that ice is serious and must be tested before anyone goes on it. Treating a frozen lake as a playground may seem careless or disrespectful of real danger.
  5. Pattern: each response comes from a different lens: age, role, values and lived experience.

The same video can be decoded as exciting (preferred), exciting but risky (negotiated) or irresponsible (oppositional). Explaining responses means linking each reading to specific audience factors and specific features of the text.

Be specific

Avoid saying "Some people might like it and some might not." Instead name who, name the factor (age, culture, experience, values, knowledge, context), and point to the feature of the text that triggers their response.

Just for fun

Proof that audiences decode differently: tell the same joke at your family dinner and in your group chat. One audience laughs; the other replies with a single "k."

Hands-on activity

Reaction interviews

You need: one short ad, music video or trailer (with a grown-up's OK), and two or three people at home or in your family of different ages (by phone or video call is fine).

  1. Before you show the text, write down what you think the preferred reading is.
  2. Show it to each person separately. Ask: What do you think it's saying? How did it make you feel? Who do you think it's for? Would you change anything?
  3. Record each answer, then label it preferred, negotiated or oppositional.
  4. For each person, name the audience factor that best explains their response.
  5. Write a short paragraph: Why did the same text prompt different responses?

What to look for: a correct label for each response, a clear link between each response and a factor (for example Dad's negotiated reading came from his experience as a mechanic: he noticed the car in the ad was driving unsafely), and a paragraph that uses the words encode and decode.

Your turn

1

What does it mean to encode and decode a message?

2

Define the three types of reading Stuart Hall described.

3

In the holiday ad, which reading is "Nice, but our celebrations look nothing like that"?

4

Which reading is "It's a store telling me to spend money"? What factor might explain it?

5

Name four factors that shape audience responses.

6

Why might a teen and a grandparent react differently to an ad using a song from the 1970s?

More practice: warm-up

1

Who encodes a media text: the producer or the audience?

2

Which reading accepts the intended message fully?

3

Give one example of context of viewing.

4

True or false: if you respond differently from the preferred reading, you misunderstood the text.

5

Why does satire depend on audience knowledge?

More practice: on your own

1

A comedy sketch makes fun of people who complain about winter. How might a newcomer experiencing their first Canadian winter respond differently from someone who grew up in Thunder Bay?

2

How can representation affect a viewer's response?

3

A video game ad is shown during a hockey game. Explain how the context might change audience responses compared to seeing it on a gaming channel.

4

Explain why a public-health ad might deliberately be made in several versions.

5

Can a single viewer change their reading of a text over time? Give an example.

Challenge

1

Choose a real ad, film or show. Describe its preferred reading, then write a negotiated and an oppositional reading, each linked to a specific audience factor and a specific feature of the text.

2

Some people say producers should make texts that no one could read oppositionally. Is this possible or desirable? Explain.

3

Revise the invented holiday ad so that more viewers from different backgrounds are likely to give a preferred reading, while keeping its warm tone. Explain three changes.

Check your understanding

Quiz

1.

In Stuart Hall's model, the producer...

2.

A viewer says, "It's a fun ad, but it ignores how expensive that would be." This is a...

3.

A viewer completely rejects an ad's message because of their values. This is a...

4.

Why might a parent react to the Live loud stunt video differently from a teen skateboarder?

5.

Which is an example of context of viewing affecting a response?

6.

Which explanation of different responses is strongest?

For parents and teachers

What this lesson teaches: expectation 1.4: explaining why the same media text might prompt different responses from different audiences. Students use Stuart Hall's encoding/decoding ideas (preferred, negotiated and oppositional readings) and audience factors such as age, culture, lived experience, values, knowledge and context.

How to help at home:

  • Share your honest reaction to an ad or show and explain what in your experience shaped it.
  • Ask your teen to predict how a grandparent or younger sibling would react to something they like.
  • Respect differences: the point is to explain responses, not to decide whose is correct.

Common difficulties:

  • Vague explanations ("people are different"). Ask for the factor and the feature.
  • Thinking oppositional means misunderstanding. Oppositional readers understand the message and reject it.
  • Ignoring their own lens. Encourage your teen to name the factors shaping their own reading.

Facts used: Stuart Hall (1932 to 2014) was a Jamaican-born British cultural theorist; his encoding/decoding model dates from the 1970s. The holiday ad and the Live loud video are invented examples.