Reception theory

Reception theory is a body of communication theories relating to how audiences receive information. Communicators have always been concerned with how their messages are received, though the formal study of audience reception only began in the 1960s. Theorists such as Hans Robert Jauss and Stuart Hall analyzed how various forms of media encoded messages and how audience members decoded them. Reception theory holds that audience members may accept, partly accept, or reject messages and that audience reactions may vary drastically based on countless factors, including culture, time period, and methods of communication.

Background

Since the dawn of communication, people have strived to have different effects on their audiences. A discussion might be meant to persuade a companion to accept a particular point of view. A speech might be intended to make a crowd feel excited about pursuing a shared goal. Speakers developed and used techniques, such as moderating their tone and volume or making hand gestures, to emphasize their points and connect with listeners. With the advent of writing, conveying messages to audiences took on new complications. Writers had to choose words that would spread ideas and feelings and achieve various ends, even across long distances and without any immediate feedback or other interaction.

With the breakthroughs in communication technology in the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries, conveying messages took on entirely new dimensions. Communicators could now use spoken words and moving images to share ideas across a country or even internationally. New venues for communication, such as radio programs and television shows, appeared. Still later, online technology broadened communication immensely, giving people access to many varieties of information from around the world with just a few clicks.

In the twenty-first century, media is one of the largest and most influential industries in the world. Modern media—ranging from traditional books, newspapers, and magazines to high-tech blogs, vlogs, and social media campaigns—influence billions of people in countless ways. Learning to use this varied media is an essential skill for educators, entertainers, business leaders, and even top government officials. Millions of people study media and develop new techniques and technologies to better harness communications. For these reasons, analysis of how people receive, interpret, store, and remember messages is essential. One important tool frequently used in this analysis is reception theory.

Overview

Reception theory is a large and varied body of findings relating to the responses of audiences to various forms of communication media. Different theorists contributed to different branches of reception theory, but the theory in general is often traced back to German literary historian Hans Robert Jauss. In the 1960s and 1970s, Jauss focused on the nature of written communication through time, the many ways it conveyed messages to readers and the many ways readers absorbed and interpreted these messages. His method of study was called philosophical hermeneutics, or the deep study and interpretation of literature, and the ideas he developed were termed Rezeptionsästhetik, a German term meaning “reception aesthetics.”

Jauss is usually viewed as the founder of literary reception theory. However, as communication technology expanded at a tremendous rate in the later twentieth century, the field of reception theory had to expand as well. Jamaican British theorist Stuart Hall used similar principles to study the effects of television and other non-literary media on various cultures and vice versa. Modern theorists dealing in technology-based communication often view Hall as the main founder of reception theory. His 1973 essay “Encoding and Decoding Television Discourse” is a milestone in the field. Some other theorists who applied the theories to other forms of expression include Susan Bennett, who studied the communication involved in live performances, and John Dixon Hunt, who analyzed how perceptions have changed land use and landscaping over time.

Modern reception theory deals with several primary concepts, including encoding and decoding. Encoding is the process by which a communicator prepares a message to be transmitted, usually using commonly accepted rules and words or symbols that an audience can understand and relate to. When members of the audience receive the message, their task is to decode it. Decoding refers to the way that audience members absorb and interpret the message. The basic guideline of reception theory is that encoding and decoding can vary greatly depending on the communicator, audience, cultural norms, time period, political atmosphere, and many other factors. For these reasons, the person who receives the message may not feel the same way the communicator felt about it or respond in the way the communicator had intended. An audience of fifty people may have fifty distinctly different reactions to the same message.

Generally, audience members may fit into one of three categories: dominant, negotiated, or oppositional. A dominant audience member receives a message directly and more or less understands and internalizes it as the communicator intended. A negotiated audience member usually does not agree with a message that is received but accepts it in the context of the overall presentation. For example, a person who is nonviolent in real life may still enjoy watching movies containing violence, with the understanding that they are fictional portrayals meant to support a narrative. An oppositional audience member is a person who actively disagrees with or dislikes the message received and does not want to accept it.

Applying reception theory in the analysis of audiences is very challenging due to the countless variables involved. Each audience member perceives information in a unique way. Some audience members may even change between the dominant, negotiated, and oppositional roles during the course of a single presentation. In addition, many reception theorists focus on the enormous influence of culture and history on reception theory. Public reception of a given message may vary dramatically depending on when and where the communication takes place. Some audience members may even change their attitudes toward certain messages over time when other factors change. For these reasons, many media outlets devote extensive time, energy, and resources to studying and analyzing how audiences are reacting to their content. Social media managers often employ reception theory in their content strategies, as they realize that social media viewers are active participants and interpret content subjectively. Reception theory, when applied to the Internet and social media, must consider the viewer's diversity, be sensitive to the content of their posts, and encourage engagement. 

Bibliography

Davis, Helen. Understanding Stuart Hall. SAGE Publications, 2004.

Jauss, Hans Robert. Toward an Aesthetic of Reception. University of Minnesota, 1982.

“The Reception Analysis Model of Audience Effects.” Revise Sociology, 6 Nov. 2019, revisesociology.com/2019/11/06/the-reception-analysis-model-of-audience-effects. Accessed 13 Dec. 2024.

Payne, Craig. “Hans Robert Jauss.” Guide to Literary Masters & Their Works, Jan. 2007, p. 1. EBSCOhost, search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=lkh&AN=164512700&site=ehost-live. Accessed 13 Dec. 2024.

“Reception Theory.” Communication Theory, www.communicationtheory.org/reception-theory. Accessed 13 Dec. 2024.

Smith, Ken, et al. (Eds.) Handbook of Visual Communication: Theory, Methods, and Media. Routledge, 2011.

Staab, A. “Reception.” University of Chicago, winter 2007, csmt.uchicago.edu/glossary2004/reception.htm. Accessed 13 Dec. 2024.

Thompson, Martyn. "Reception Theory and the Interpretation of Historical Meaning." History and Theory, vol. 32, no. 33, 1993, p. 248, www.researchgate.net/publication/271775287‗Reception‗Theory‗and‗the‗Interpretation‗of‗Historical‗Meaning. Accessed 13 Dec. 2024.