Stuart Hall - Audience Positioning

Hall says that there are three different positions audiences (receivers) take in order todecode the meanings within cultural texts, particularly televisual discourses. They are thedominant-hegemonic position, the negotiated position and the oppositional position. (Hall1993, 101)

The dominant-hegemonic position is when the viewer, or audience member, is locatedwithin the dominant point of view. (Hall 1993, 101) Within this position, there is littlemisunderstanding and miscommunication, as both sender and receiver are working underthe same rule set, assumptions and cultural biases. It is this position that will allow thetransmission of ideas to be understood the best, despite certain frictions that may occur dueto issues of class structure and power, specifically between the elites who are able to dictatethe rule set and the non-elites who must adopt the elite's rules as dominant. (Hall 1993,101)

The negotiated position is when the audience member, or receiver, is able to decode thesender's message within the context of the dominant cultural and societal views. (Hall 1993,102) The messages are largely understood, but in a different sense than the dominant-hegemonic position. The receivers in the negotiated position are not necessarily workingwithin the hegemonic viewpoint, but are familiar enough with dominant society to be able toadequately decode cultural texts in an abstract sense. (Hall 1993, 102) However, it isentirely possible for the audience member to decipher the message as a more personalmessage, which is when their own biases and viewpoints muddy the decoding process. This"near view" of the message usually occurs in certain situations that are close to theaudience member, as opposed to the general "long view" they take of cultural texts in theabstract. (Hall 1993, 102)

The oppositional view is when the audience member is capable of decoding the message inthe way it was intended to be decoded, but based on their own societal beliefs, often seesanother, unintended meaning within the message. (Hall 1993, 103)

Research Source - Stuart Hall

Stuart Hall - Audience Positioning from reigatemedia