The idea that producers and audiences are both selective, eg: editors select the news from that day's events and audiences select what to watch and remember.

The idea that a media text is not a window on the world but is  a product of individuals in organisations making decisions over the selection of content. In other words; we see what they want us to see.

A way of ‘tying down meaning’, without anchorage meaning could be polysemic – open to various interpretations, eg a caption anchors meaning to a photo, music anchors mood in a media text.

Create a poster of three different images and use contrasting captions to create a different meaning for each. Use Photoshop to add the caption over the image.

A news photograph for example may appear to be presenting us with a factual image but before it goes to print it has been through a process of construction:

• The photographer has selected his/her position, lens, angle, exposure and framing before taking the picture.

• The picture editor will decide if the image needs to be cropped, enhanced or in any way altered before inclusion into the paper.

• An editor will choose which, of the many available photographs of the image, will be the one chosen for inclusion in the newspaper and, importantly at this stage, the images which do not meet the needs of the text will be rejected.

Even then, further mediation takes place:

• Will the photograph be large or small?  

• Will the photograph be on the front page or, less visible, on page 8?

Placement choices like this, along with cropping and framing, act to focus the attention of the reader in a certain way.

• What headline and text will be used to accompany the photograph?

• Will the photograph have a caption?

• Will it be positioned close to another photograph?

Anchorage is basically used in media to attach meaning to something through either the matching of words to images or the juxtaposition of two images which construct a meaning. We expored this earlier in the caption activity you completed.

For example in advertising, an image alone is polysemic )open to a range of interpretations). To clarify what the image means and so to make the image relevant to the purpose of the advert, text can be added. Thus the image serves as the 'hook' while the text anchors meaning. This can be said also for photographs attached to newspaper articles. The same photograph takes on different connotations with different accompanying texts.

700 women said it made their skin feel softer.

20,000 women took the trial.

Which of the above would you include in an advertisement for a skin moisturiser aimed at women? Why?

Analyse the images used by the Sun in relation to Conor McGregor? How have presence and absence been used to create a representation?

It is a process of interpretation and translation of coded information into a comprehensible form. The audience is trying to reconstruct the idea by giving meanings to symbols and by interpreting the message as a whole. 

Audience Reception: Encoding/Decoding model

We generally don't sit in front of the TV, play video games, watch movies and then copy exactly what we've seen - we won't  lower our moral standards and we may not even let it contribute to our outlook of the world at all...

...but we definitely react in some way

The Encoders are those who produce the texts - in the case of a magazine this would involve:

• Editors

• Journalists

• Photographers

• Designers

Some media texts promote certain ideologies overtly - for example a newspaper will often make its political affiliations fairly obvious.

Other texts will be more subtle and ideologies may be more subtly encoded, for example many 1950s science fiction films whereby alien invaders routinely tried to take over the USA were often a metaphor for America's struggle in the Cold War and the threat of Communism.

Whether it's political or not all texts will have ideologies encoded into them. 

Let's have a look at some of the Ideologies which we can read from the Marie Claire magazine above...

• Looks and appearance are important

• Other people's of you are important

• Feeling good about yourself and having self confidence is important

• Strong independent women should be celebrated - women hold positions of authority and influence

• Emotions and feelings should be discussed and reflected upon

• Celebrities are people too - with feelings and vulnerabilities

• Women need guidance to help them make the right choices

• Women are maternal

• A fashionable look is important but people (children) shouldn't be harmed in attaining this look

• Materialism

See if you can find the coverlines and images which relate to the aforementioned ideologies.

This does not necessarily mean that an audience will accept and agree with these ideologies...

...read the two slides below to see what Stuart Hall says about this..

There are a few important things to remember about the three different positions that we can take.

Preferred Reading

Is not just about 'liking' a text - you must understand what the purpose of a text is and agree with its ideologies and the messages it carries.

Oppositional Reading

Is not just 'disliking' a text - there are many reasons why someone may take an oppositional reading - but whatever these reasons are, the audience member must understand what the intentions of the text are, but reject them.

Negotiated Reading

Can be the case whereby an audience member agrees with some ideologies and not others, but it can also be the case where the audience doesn't fully understand the intentions of the text - or is confused about the purpose of the text.

Look at the list of ideologies discussed above - this is the preferred reading of the magazine. But of course there are reasons why people might take an Oppositional Reading, which might include...

• Rejecting materialism

• Believing that there are more important things in life than appearance

• Believing that having fashionable clothes is more important than knowing where the clothes come from

• It doesn't matter what others think of you so long as you are happy with yourself

Some audience members may accept and agree with the ideologies - but still only take a Negotiated Reading of the text because of the choice of Angelina Jolie as representing these ideologies.

Some find her to be overrated, overexposed or even as a traitor to other women for stealing Brad Pitt's husband! This dislike of Jolie wouldn't change their mind about the ideologies of how to live your life or what should be considered important to women.

Responses to texts can be analysed to see whether an audience have taken a Preferred, Oppositional or Negotiated response.

Audience Decoding is the process by which a text is constructed by the producer (The process by which the audience reads and interprets the meaning of a text)

What factors affect how we decode a media product?

We can all read media texts in different ways as we are all different people who bring to that reading a number of different experiences/traits. 

Types of reading – preferred, negotiated, oppositional and aberrant

Types of audience – age, gender, race, class 

Context – when and where a media text is consumed Individual life experience Cultural capital Polysemic meanings 

Kidulthood (2006)

Who is the film’s target audience?

What is your response to the film poster?

Read the responses below from various forums and review websites - 

Discuss what position the audience members have taken with consideration given to Hall