Reception Theory

1) What is the preferred reading of a media text?

The message or ideology/belief the producers want the audience to believe.

2) What is the oppositional reading of a media text?

This is when the consumer takes away an opposite message or belief different to what the producers want.

Re-watch the trailer for the film Harry Brown:

3) How does the Harry Brown trailer position the audience to respond to the teenage characters in the film?

The trailer will make the audience think that all/most teenagers are associated with gangs and violence whereas that's not the truth.

4) Why might young people reject this reading and construct an oppositional reading of the trailer?

Not every teenager is a gang member or violent and this then makes teenagers who watch the trailer feel incorrectly represented in society.

Look at this McDonald's advert:

5) Write a 150+ word analysis of the McDonald's advert using preferred, negotiated and oppositional readings.

PREFERRED READING

This advert creates a belief that the burger is good and tasty. This is shown as the text describes the burger in a very in-depth way to show and convince the consumer to buy the burger therefore giving profit to McDonalds. 

NEGOTIATED READING

This advert may convince the audience the consumer to buy the burger by adding a huge appealing photo of the product in the middle of the advert to advertise the burger as delicious but on the other hand the consumer might not like the fact that this burger has meat in it and may be vegetarian and may not be able to consume the burger so they may feel upset about this.

OPPOSITIONAL READING

This advert describes a delicious burger with meat in it, but the people that are viewing this product may not be able to consume meat and may feel left out and may want to find an alternative to this burger making it harder for them to find as there isn't many alternatives as this advert describes how they have a 'secret sauce' so this will be hard to imitate. The reader may take this the wrong way and make them think this advert is racist as maybe the consumer cant have meat due to religious reasons or may have something against vegetarians as this is not a veggie burger.