Preferred, Negotiated and Oppositional Reading

Stuart Hall is a cultural theorist and professor of Sociology at the Open University. Stuart Hall looked at the role of audience positioning in the interpretation of mass media texts by different social groups. Hall came up with a model suggesting three ways in which we may read a media text:

Preffered Reading – This is when audiences respond to the product the way media producers want/expect them to.

Negotiated Reading – This is when a member of the audience partly agrees with part of the product .e.g Film, documentary, TV programme.
Oppositional Reading – This is when the audience are in complete disagreement with the product’s message or setting.