Audience

Stuart Hall's Theories

Stuart Hall is a Professor of Sociology at the Open University and is also a Cultural Theorist. As a Cultural Theorist Hall has come up with many models, and the most interesting one is on his ideas about 'Audience'.
   Hall says there are three ways in which we may perceive a media text:




Media Power

   Hall was fascinated by the way in which media worked and its effect on society. He talked a lot about 'Dominant Ideologies' and how media can create these ideologies in order to create public debate on such things as: The role of women in society, Immigration etc. 

  Hall believes that mass media have the ability to create and define issues of public concern and interest through 'Audience Positioning'.

  The idea of Polysemy is also a big focus of Hall's. Polysemy basically means multiple meanings and If a media text is classified as it then it means that different audiences will interpret the media in a variety of ways.