Stuart Hall: Reception theory

Stuart Hall: Reception theory

Dominant, Preferred or Hegemonic Reading: what the producer/creator intends – the ‘natural’ reading

Negotiated Reading: a middle ground between the producer’s intentions and the audience’s individual views

Oppositional or ‘Counter-Hegemonic’ Reading: an alternative reading that is actively against the producer’s intentions.

The preferred or dominant reading of this is portraying that your past doesn't determine your future therefore 50 cent was recruited by the producer for audience to link his past with what the advert is suggesting. 50 cent was chosen to express an emotional speech to the audience implying that they can still change even though they have had a rough past. 50 cent promoting Reebok the brand, suggested that Reebok is also delivering the same influential speech. The negotiated reading is the producers trying to make the Reebok a branded market by using adverts therefore customers will have brand loyalty towards Reebok. Reebok has made 50 cent as the main image of the advert to influence that Reebok can change peoples lives. However, some audiences may not know 50 cents past and what the fingerprints represents; audiences may not know any criminal records 50 cent has and how he became so successful after all that. Consequently this means that audience would not be able to relate towards the advert since it might be confusing what it is communicating. The oppositional reading suggests the audience might not understand what the advert is communicating or some audience may disagree on the point 50 cent makes about "tomorrow is not promised".


 
The preferred or dominant reading of this is to show that you shouldn't stop believing in your goals because those are the things that make you strive in front of everyone else. If you truly believe something is right and will benefit you in the long term, then "just do it". The producer has chosen Colin Kaepernick because he was a well known NFL player and was announced to be the face of the 30th anniversary of "just do it" campaign.  The negotiated reading is that the producer wanted the face of Colin Kaepernick to promote the "Just do it" campaign because of his contribution to the NFL therefore will express the quote really well. However, after Colin Kaepernick kneeling down during the national anthem, the audience felt disgusted towards him and demotivated to buy products from Nike. The audience were not pleased and most likely got the wrong message since it was addressed by Colin Kaepernick. The oppositional reading is this led to the audience of Nike to burn their "Just do it"  shoes. Whereas, some audiences were hesitant about the use of Kaepernick's activism and instead started applauding Nike.