One device that we can rely on in order to uncover the mystery dramatic of a person's thinking when interacting with an object of culture is media reception theory. This theory questions the study about how we as subjects receive and interpret the text in nature of media culture.
What is the first thought in your mind when reading the word "Madonna" in the title above? What picture appears? An icon of the Mother of Jesus, or images about the outrageous doings of the celebrity world? When you read or see or hear the pop super star Madonna, do you enjoy or just fed up with her? One marker "Madonna" turns out to have the iconic power over the possible meanings of a certain generation : beautiful or sexy, sacred or unclean, all can be present in one's mind.
Is it worth it to the media -- in this case is the film, television, music or magazines, etc -- presenting matters of sexuality or violence? And then how do we then accept such media texts?
Reception studies examine the ways when a text is received by the audience, for example when someone is reading romance novels (Radway, 1984), when interpreting the broadcast of the BBC (Morley, 1980), when absorbed in examining the classical German literature (Iser, 1978; Jauss , 1982), when watching live event in the media (Dayan & Katz, 1992) or while interacting with any media text.
Discourse obtained through various media then becomes a personal discourse and contribute to our conception of the tect "meaning". As readers, we can give a number of diverse meanings of the text. What is (the meaning of) something for you? That is the purpose and focus of Reception studies.
Reception studies help us in exploring the media culture by providing a foundation of analysis about the various ways that are so complex, varied and challenging when readers to decode and interpret media texts. This approach is contrary to "the effects" study of traditional media which is based on model of transmission bullet theory. If it is not based on the study of the reception, the media research tends to assume the existence of a total conformity between audiences with media messages, as hinted in the tradition of myth "hypodermic needle" in the effectiveness of the media; media research also assumes that the audience was so foolish creature immune to the influence of (media) as referenced in the theory of "limited effects"; or constructed in the conception of "mixed effects" character.
The first view sees the media has an effect entirely, so that -- in the case of Madonna, for example -- sexuality promoted by Madonna assumed to transform audiences into sex slaves or sex devotees.
The second view assumes the media generally has no effect, then Madonna's exhibitionism lust will have no meaning.
One problem associated with studies that emphasize about "Effect" is on an overly simplified notion of the unclear media message is, whether then effective or not, and also the idea that overly simplifies the problem of measuring the behavioral effects caused by the media. Behind the debate about the effects there's always stereotypes about passive audience. Yet, in reality, there are also public who always be vigilant and critical, in contrast to those implicated in the behavioral effects of media research.
"Madonna is truly provocative and sexy woman. She likes to express her self with very alluring way. In concert with her music, she expose her self and what she believes. I believe what she does is good. Many people are afraid to be themselves and hide behind the mask of a pseudonym. Madonna gives a boost to people to freely express their passion and do what they want to do. Madonna is the figure of this era and really has a strong determination. She takes the decision on her own and more as a leader than just a follower .... "
"When I think about Madonna, my curiosity piqued because she is constantly changing her imagery and does something to make someone else offended. She is an entertaintment. She performes with surprising values and I become a victim of the things she does..."
The statements above are articulation of self-awareness that can't be raised when they are only presented by questionnaire with limited alternatives, or when they are being "measured according to a particular dose" as done in the media effects research.
Encoding models -- decoding ala
Stuart Hall -- provide a theoretical advantage when applied in the study of reception on
media culture. These models are in the opposite position, either by direct current models as well as models of the effects of passive acceptance of a long transmission (Hall, 1994:253). Sender as the original message. The message is one-dimensional, and it takes effect on the recipient behavior. Contrary to the above model, Hall filed a model that asserted that both the creation and reception of a message were not "transparent" and "one-dimensional" like that. Hall wrote, "The message is a complex structure of meanings" (1994:254).
The meaning is not fixed but rather multi-layered (polysemic) and multireferential. Madonna can put herself as a "good girl" or "bad girl" in a music video, and audiences may respond to different aspects of the message and with different ways as well. Semiotics and structuralism -- in line with the idea Althuser and Gramsci -- allowing Hall to identify the complexity of the text in the media and in how people receive and interpret the media texts.
In the reception analysis, the text of Madonna taken by readers / listeners / viewers as meaningful discourse and interpreted with a certain meaning. According to Hall (1980, in During 1993: 93) "It is this set of decoded meanings roomates 'have an effect', influence, entertain, instruct or persuade, with very complex perceptual, cognitive, emotional, ideological or behavioral Consequences".
In particular, individuals who are in a different position in the social structure of society -- views of class, race or gender will take different codes and sub-cultures -- will play a role in the decoding and interpretation of the text. For example, in a survey conducted on 168 students (81 of whom were male or almost 50.9% of the entire sample) asked, "What is the meaning of Madonna for you?"
Although nearly 28% of both men and women tended to see it in relation to music and business, more women (30% of the total sample) than men (21%) depicting Madonna primarily in relation to the "personality". More men than women (38%: 24%) described the meaning of Madonna as a "bad girl" who created bad popular culture. Not surprisingly -- in the case of this question and others -- gender appears to carry different implications in decoding and assessment of the Madonna. Gender, economic class, race-based identity, and other social differences play an important role in our decoding of the media text.
Reception studies is an umbrella used by Janet Staiger (1992:7) in classifying the three branches of interpretation theory based on the reader. This reader-based theory of reading into the intellectual roots in the analysis of the reception of the experience in media culture.
One of the branches of "reception aesthetics" is derived from the German marked by the work of Hans Robert Jauss and Wolfgang Iser using the phenomenological tradition of Edmund Husserl to test "the decoding experience".
Meanwhile, another branch of "reader-response criticism" appears through the work of Stanley Fish, Jonathan Culler, Norman Holland and others who have investigated the interaction of the text with the reader in general. And the third branch is the "reception theory" that has been applied in various ways to see how "reading" with a combination of the German tradition of "reader-response criticism". In order not to be confused with this branching, Stiger suggested labels that -- generically -- called it "reception theory". Reception theory tries to how a text decoded, thus receptions study does not deal with the life story of Madonna and Madonna appearance, but rather on how the audience receives Madonna text.
How far we can fill the gaps in the text for the experts regarded as an important contribution in the reception theory. Robert Allen (1992) summarized the reception theory through the notion of "gap filling". We read the words, evoking images and impressions, comparing it with other text, and make a picture based on our own experience. What we do will vary due to differences in culture, experience group, and our psychological. Audience from diverse cultural backgrounds will fill the gap with a very different way when they watch the Dallas series, soap operas about the Texas oil millionaires entrepreneurs. Similarly, the study of the British soap opera Brookside and Eastender (Root, 1986), Crossroads (Brunsdon, 1981) or Corronation Street (Dyer et. Al, 1981) study of Dallas found that women more effectively filled gaps in the soap opera (Ang , 1985) and interpretations of various variety shows more widespread, especially among different ethnic groups - Israeli, Arab, Russian, American, and other (Liches and Katz, 1990).
Reception study benefited by cutting-edge ideas which emphasize that each media text is layered or polysemic. Since each text is polysemic, whether it's a soap opera, a video of Madonna, or narrative reports, then it will have so many messages that can be abstracted. Reception study examines how people choose from the many possibilities of meaning buried in the text and makes itself available to be read by the reader.
Encoding-decoding model is concerned with the reception, although as models tend to try to keep a balance in each stage in the processing of this media culture. Meaning can not necessarily be read directly from the characteristics of the text, but the text is still considered important. Author or text-producing is not the sole determinant of the rise of something meaning through the text interaction with readers, however, the creative process of the production is still important. Neither the text nor the producer of the text provides the meanings and readings in a specific way.
In the view of the reception, Madonna as the creator of her text triggers the discursive process. Text is manifested in songs, music videos, concerts, movies, books, and appearances on television has encouraged the creation of a separate discourse. Reproach against her attitude and readers displeasure then interact with Madonna's text, thus giving birth to a meaning of its own. This final stage is reception studies.
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[CZ-lacalifusa 061614]
... See you again, for an indeterminate time. 
