Stuart Hall And The Theory Of Encoding And Decoding

This theory is about how media messages are produced, circulated and consumed, proposing a new theory of communication. Hall said that the meaning of a media text is not determined or fixed by the sender, the message is never transparent and the audience is not passive recipient of meaning. He says that there is a "lack of fit" between the moment of the production of the message (encoding) and the moment of its reception (decoding). In other words people interpret media texts in different ways, depending on their cultural background, economic standings and personal experience, and also that the audience members can play an active role in decoding the messages of the text and are capable of changing these messages themselves.

Audience Response 

Oppositional: When they understand the text, but reject the message, they come from an oppositional position

Dominant: Seen as the hegemonic response, people share the code and preferred reading 

Negotiated: They accept what the text is saying, and adapt it according to their social background.

These are the three different types of ways the audience reads the text according to Stuart Hall.