Reception Theory

According to Kinishita (2004) reception theory refer to a general shift in concern from the author and the work to the text and the reader, reception theory reflects a paradigm shift in the history of literature, and it is considered “a reaction to social, intellectual, and literary developments in West Germany during the late 1960s. This emphasizes a change in perspective of the intended meaning or interpretation of a media product from that of the creator to the perceives meaning that the target audience decodes of its.

Ideally, the reception theory categorizes the audience as being active and text as indeterminate and meaning derived is neither suggested by the text or the reader. Therefore, the ideas that interpretation is generated by a particular set of an audience has a peculiar impact on how we classify Visual communication and also how we study them. Reception Theorist direct attention to the interaction that takes places in what they call a text reader or medium audience nexus, It is the picture viewer engagement that creates this nexus (Barbatsis 2011).

An example of the “Got Talent” is a British talent show TV format conceived and owned by Simon Cowell’s SYCO TV company, which has spawned spin-offs in over 70 countries (as of April 2019), in what is now referred to as the ‘Got Talent’ format, similar to that described by Fremantle Media of the Idol and The X-Factor formats. Unlike those shows, Got Talent showcases several artistic disciplines in addition to singing. In April 2014, the format was named the world’s most successful reality TV format ever by the Guinness World Records.

• Power lies with the Audience: The Got Talent media product shows strives immensely on the active participation of the audience, as a reality show audience engagement on the social media through comments and voting in favour of participants affects the outcome and the direction on which the product is to take. As a reality show the audience have more power to overrule the decision of the Judges irrespective of the flaws the judges feel that contestant may have. The method in which the audience tries to decode the content  which is usually a contrast to that of the media creator because of the level of professionalism that could be at play.
• Media Creator control is not a Grantee: As a reality show the Got Talent shows is ran on the bases of an unknown, unforeseen but high spectators’ outcome. Since even the media creator do not have even 1% clue on who is likely to win the feat from the onset of the program it put the engagement of the audience at the peak.
• Distinction between financial economy and cultural economy: The cultural system works like the economic system to distribute its resources unequally and thus to distinguish between the privileged and the deprived. This cultural system promotes and privileges certain cultural tastes and competences, particularly through the educational system, but also through other institutions such as art galleries, concert halls, museums, and state subsidies to the arts, which taken together constitute a ‘high’ culture (ranging from the traditional to the avant-garde (Fiske, 1992). Therefore, there is always a conflict of interest in taste between the different groups of the got talent audience and how much they are willing spend on the media product. Also, as a franchise product audience choice and taste are peculiar to the region that the product is launched.
• Leads to the Idea of polysemy: Polysemy refers to multiple meaning and interpretations, the “Got Talent” media product has varieties of activities showcased in its programs. Each programs content is directed to a specific group of audience/ demography but it does not prevent audience from other regions from watching the program. This results in a variation of interpretation and  user generated content via high social media traffic.
• Deliberately Created by financial interests: The main goal for creating media products targeted at audience engagement and interaction based on each individual audience level of decoding is to make financial gain because the content creator allows the media product to be influenced and take a natural swing towards the direction of the predominant choice of the audience to make profit. This is evidence in the Got Talent show when the audience are required to vote their choice candidate through varieties of means but the end game is that the audience can not help but use their finances to make a choice creating a means of revenue for the content creators.

Conclusion:

The reception theory is one that generally emphasizes the role of the audience in the process of media content creation. The media majorly plays the role of a middle man or a medium of transportation of very coding within a media product. Therefore, the quality of content and proportionate level of interpretation is the so responsibility of the active players in the two-way communication approach. To a large degree, the reception theory is very much prevalent in the mass communication process of our every world, majority of the media products advertised have been adapted to the various levels of audience responses and acceptance of them. Examples are the various slogans and phrases that accompanies various adverts, because they end up as incomplete sentences the corresponding meaning and various interpretations are left at the mercy of the audience to decipher.

References

Barbatsis, G. (2011). Handbook of Visual Communication. [online] Google Books. Available at:https://books.google.ie/books?hl=en&lr=&id=ikmM_irMjKUC&oi=fnd&pg=PT291&dq=+Reception+theory+of+Audience&ots=VXGsAqIhK&sig=rnUthmzGKncFVxJEuEPG9G62x7c&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=Reception%20theory%20of%20Audience&f=false [Accessed 20 Apr. 2019].

Fiske, J. (1992). The Cultural Economy of Fandom. [online] Paas.org.pl. Available at: http://paas.org.pl/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/Fiske.pdf [Accessed 26 Apr. 2019].

Kinoshita, Y. (2004). Reception Theory. [online] Yumikinoshita.com. Available at: http://www.yumikinoshita.com/receptiontheory.pdf [Accessed 24 Apr. 2019].