Stuart Hall Theories

 In class, we studied two of Stuart Hall's movie theories. The two we studied are reception and representation theory.

Stuart Hall's Reception Theory

This theory states that media is encoded with ideas by producers hoping that the message can be decoded by viewers. Audiences may comprehend the media different due to age, sex, childhood, and location. Producers hope that viewers have a preferred reading. This is when the audience decodes and understands the message the producer had in mind. Sometimes views have oppositional readings. This is when viewers obtain a different interpretation than what the author intended. An example of this is the Netflix movie "Cuties" 

"Cuties (French: Mignonnes) is a 2020 French coming-of-age drama film written and directed by Maïmouna Doucouré in her feature directorial debut. The film's ensemble cast is led by Fathia Youssouf who portrays Amy, a Senegalese-French girl with a traditional Muslim upbringing who is caught between traditional Muslim values and Internet culture when she joins a twerking dance crew."

This movie had an oppositional reading because the author intended to criticize the Hyper sexualization of pre-adolescent girls, yet the public did not receive that message. The public felt the movie was doing the same thing it was trying to expose. Viewers felt the movie was excessive and focused more on the sexualize of kids rather than the consequences of doing so. Some felt the movie "promoted the lewd visual material depicting children" opposite of the director's intentions.

For my film opener, I would like for the audience to receive the message of bullying causes bigger problems and is not just a "joke" for some people.

Stuart Hall's Representation Theory

This theory states that the media uses stereotypes and in turn, this reduced a group of people down to clichés. This is a problem because stereotypes tend to be negative and this results in people believing things about a group of people that is not true. For example, when told to think about a middle age Mexican woman most associate that scenario with the Mexican woman being a maid. The Hegemonic elite is a dominant group in society that produces most of the media, helping push the stereotypical narrative which is seen through the eyes of older rich white men. For example, the movie "Clueless"

The plot centers on a beautiful, popular, and rich high school student who befriends a new student and decides to give her a makeover while playing a matchmaker for her teachers and examining her own existence. While, she is playing matchmaker and dress-up, she is also looking for love in a nonchalant way, which brings her to falling for her ex step-brother, Josh.

This movie played into the stereotype of a rich white girl that is blonde it is dumb and only obsessed with her looks. Yet, this movie experiences a positive reaction and is looked at as a classic movie that everyone should watch. Even though this movie plays into the negative stereotypes the main character evolves and finds true love but also understands that looks aren’t everything.

In my film, I do not think we play into any stereotypes. I believe we break them. When people think about anything negative happening at a school the main thought is that it comes from a white person yet, our lead character is black. I will expand more on this in a different post.