What were two points from this week's reading that stood out to you as particularly important and/or interesting? Why so?
What is the difference between the context and the text? The context can be understood as the word outside, the background knowledge related to the media text. Besides, the text can be considered as media items such as advertisements, films, magazines and so on. While the audience, who have background knowledge (context) about the media text can understand the text more deeply than the ones who do not have, the text which the audience pays attention to when they do not know anything about its context. Without the knowledge of why the media text appears, they will depend on its features to guess its meaning in their way instead of the creator's way. Therefore, the text plays an essential role in the media text (O’Shaughnessy et al., 2016).
What does inscribed reader and actual readers mean? We can take inscribed readers' accounts into the media text’s target audience. If the creator knows their inscribed readers, they can do research (including segmentation, psychology the behaviour of their customers, and so on). When the media text is published the actual reader who reads, understands and interprets the text will appear (O’Shaughnessy et al., 2016).
References:
O'Shaughnessy, M, Stadler, J, & Casey, S 2016, Media and Society, Oxford University Press, Melbourne. Available from: ProQuest Ebook Central. [11 October 2023].
In your own words, explain: The difference between open and closed texts.
In my perspective, "open text" and "closed text" are similar to "cool media" and "hot media". The thing difference between them is that "open text" and "closed text" are defined by Stuart Hall, while "cool media" and "hot media" are defined by Mashall Mc Luhan. The difference between open texts and closed texts is that open text allows the audience to interpret it in a variety of ways and closed text is made to convey a clear, defined meaning.
In your own words, explain: The three types of decoding Hall proposed.
Decoding will be impacted by external factors (environmental factors) and internal factors (inside of you), so different consumers will have different ways to react to that. There are three types of decoding: dominant, negotiated, and oppositional. Dominant means the audience agrees with the information they get from the media text. By contrast, the oppositional group will disagree completely with the encoding (this group can be known as the ones seeking power). Negotiated means they keep a balanced attitude while they receive the information.
Briefly describe a media text you engaged with recently and reflect on your reading position in relation to it (using terms/concepts from the lectures and readings in the unit so far).
Recently, I have read an academic article which is considered a closed text related to mental health topics. I play the role of a negotiated reader when I keep open-minded and critical thinking to decide whether the information is correct or not. After going through the encoding process, in my opinion, even though their research is so detailed, their solution lacks practicality and it is so difficult to access society.
