The Active Audience - Collective Identity

The active audience

More recent developments still suggest that there is a decoding process going on among the active audience who are not simply using the media for gratification purposes. Morley's view of dominant, negotiated and oppositional readings of texts is a semiological approach because it recognises the importance of the analysis of signs, particularly visual signs, that shape so much of modern media output. In this model, at its simplest level, the audience accept or agree with the encoded meanings, they accept and refine parts of the text's meanings or they are aware of the dominant meaning of the text but reject it for cultural, political or ideological reasons.

Preferred/dominant reading The preferred reading is the reading media producers hope will take from the text. For example, an advertisement for a McDonald’s Big Mac is intended to encourage feelings of hunger and a desire to buy a McDonald’s. Assuming the majority of the audience share this reaction then this is also the dominant reading.

Oppositional reading

Audience members from outside the target audience may reject the preferred reading, receiving their own alternative message. The health-conscious, anti-globalisation campaigners and vegetarians will most likely respond to the McDonald’s advert with frustration and annoyance.

Negotiated reading

The ‘third way’ is one in which audiences acknowledge the preferred reading, but modify it to suit their own values and opinions. A negotiated response to the McDonald’s advert might be “I love Big Macs – but one a month is enough as they aren’t good for me.”