Stuart Hall

Stuart Hall developed the concept of audience positioning as a result of examining news reports on industrial strikes.
He claimed that media representations established a framework for possible responses – this is like setting an agenda for issues to be raised with audiences.
The responses to an audience watching a media text would be likely to fall into three main categories: 

Dominant readings mean: Audiences respond to the way narrative is constructed and adopt the points of view implied

Oppositional readings mean: Audiences reject the way the narrative is constructed, question and challenge the points of view implied

Negotiated readings mean: Audiences partially accept the way the narrative is constructed but can see both points of view: the dominant and oppositional readings

Aberrant readings are an additional interpretation: where the text is read in a deviant and largely unanticipated manner, the preferred reading not being recognised at all