Stuart Hall

Encoding and Decoding tests AND preferred, negotiated and oppositional readings. Thinks that audiences will react in different ways to media products. 

In the 1980's and 90's, a lot of research was undertaken on the way individuals received and interpreted a text, and how their individual circumstances (gender, class, age, ethnicity) affected their reading. The text is encoded by the producer, and decoded by the reader, and there may be major differences between two different readings of the same code. However, by using recognised codes and conventions, and by drawing upon audience expectations relating to aspects such as genre and use of stars, the producers can position the audience and thus create a certain amount of agreement on what the code means; known as a preferred reading.