Reception Analysis.

This analysis proposes a question: What is the role of the actual audience in the process of meaning-making in the media? Well, Reception analysis is described as the method of analysis that "stresses audience interpretation as the primary site of meaning-making." (Critical Media Studies, p. 222). As described in the textbook, Meaning is "fluid and communication is imperfect within this perspective and negotiation between media producers and consumers constantly skews the true meaning of media texts."

We are aware that what makes most happy is what media strives for, not everyone has the same tastes and preferences. This is where the "two step flow" model by Paul Lazarsfeld is introduced. Opinion leaders are considered to be the certain individuals that are attended to media more than others, simply for the fact that their significance can influence secondary audiences  Makes sense, huh? More audience, more money, and more views. In coherence with the reception analysis, the Encoding/Decoding Model  by Stuart Hall was made to make better sense of audience effects. Firstly, a code: a set of rules that govern the use of visual and linguistic signs within a culture. Note that codes are never neutral, and they shape the representations of race and gender in a hegemonic way. The left side called the encoding side of the model is concerned with how dominant ideologies come to exist in mass-mediated texts. Media texts are marked by hegemonic ideologies. The right hand decoding side of the model shows how audiences can actually interpret or read media texts according to three possible codes or positions: (Dominant, Oppositional & Negotiated)

As we know, what majority of the audience takes interest in, the more the media strives to make meaning out of what is most attracted to. Traditionally, this is how most decisions are made, so we can only imagine how much an impact the audience has in sales, progress and the end result of a mass media production.