What is Reception Theory in Film?

Various forms of teachings and theories exist in the film industry as a means of studying the impact that films have on audiences. The reception theory in film represents a unique concept that specifically points out that even films which have events that technically have no meaning can cause the audience to draw some conclusions about the experience. All to create some understandable meaning of what’s happening on the screen. Essentially, the audience will decode the message encoded by the filmmaker. Whether there actually IS or IS NOT a message to decode.

Understanding Reception Theory in Film

To help you understand exactly how reception theory in film works, it’s important to lay the foundation for how messages are encoded into most stories through underlying rules, morals, symbols and other common elements.

The audience naturally attempts to view various encoded messages within a film in a way that allows them to attempt to understand WHY events unfold the way they do.

This is called decoding, and according to reception theory in film, an audience is going to attempt to decode the underlying message of a film’s events regardless of whether those events are actually symbolic or not.

Multiple Interpretations

Unfortunately, the messages that are sent through the various cues and gestures of the story may not always be decoded in the same manner by the audience.

Various reasons for this occur including the audience’s age, gender, religion, political views, socioeconomic class, culture, mood or even their race or ethnicity. 

No Inherent Meaning

According to reception theory, a film does not have inherent meaning in and of itself. Instead, meaning is the result of the various classes and how they decode the film. This takes place through contextual factors more so than through textual factors.

Which influences the way in which the audience views the film and decodes the elements of the story. Reception theory in film essentially states that most film spectators fall within one of several preconceived notions.

Based on their age, gender, political views, etc. And this plays a key role in how they receive the story.

How Films are Perceived

There are three dominant types of people who perceive or receive the message of a film. Thus, according to reception theory in film, the majority of people fall into one of the following three categories.

In terms of how they will receive and therefore perceive the message of a film:

• Dominant Spectator – this is the audience that receives the film just as it is delivered by the Director. The messages are understood properly and followed by the viewer.
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• Negotiated Spectator –  this is the audience that thinks they understand the message of the film. But it goes against what they stand for personally. They accept the message anyway and enjoy the content.
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• Oppositional Spectator – this is the audience that takes the message of the film but does not accept it. They see what the filmmaker is trying to say, but they aren’t having it. It goes against their beliefs.

In Summation

As you can see, reception theory in film specifically states that meaning is created as the spectator watches a process of a film and therefore depends on the spectator’s preconceived notions of right, wrong, good and bad.