Stuart Hall - Audience Theorist:

Audience Theorist 5
Stuart Hall:
He Was Born in Kingston, Jamaica on 3rd February 1932. He is a cultural theorist and sociologist who has lived and worked in UK since 1951.

Hall, along with Richard Hoggart and Raymond Williams, was one of the founding figures of the school of thought that is now known as British Cultural Studies or The Birmingham School of Cultural Studies. He was President of the British Sociological Association 1995-1997.At the invitation of Hoggart, Hall joined the Centre for Contemporary Cultural Studies at Birmingham University in 1964. Hall took over from Hoggart as director of the Centre in 1968, and remained there until 1979. While at the Centre, Hall is credited with playing a role in expanding the scope of cultural studies to deal with race and gender, and with helping to incorporate new ideas derived from the work of French theorists. Hall left the centre in 1979 to become a professor of sociology at the Open University. Hall retired from the Open University in 1997 and is now a Professor Emeritus. British newspaper The Observer called him "one of the country's leading cultural theorists".He is married to Catherine Hall, a feminist professor of modern British history at University College London.

Summary of Theory:

This Theory suggests that peoples Cultural Background and experiences can determin the ways in which they interpret the media products.

This Theorist also belives:

1. Meaning is not simly fixed or determined by the sender;
2. The message is never transparent and ;
3. The audience is not a passive recipient of meaning.

An example of this would be when the older generation watch a music video like Beyonce's if you like then you should have put a ring on it where she is wearing provocative clothing which reinstates the fact that they wont like girls revealing theselves which will make them not watch the music video and make bad meanings from the video. The older generation wouldn't prefer the girl wearing such clothes which shows her body as this is evient in the muslim religion as they have to cover their bodies and most girls don't wear such clothes as it is against the religion ot show yourself demeaning in that sort of way.

From this i have Gathered that  Stuart hall's thoery is actually still relevant to the ways in which people interpet the media products becasue in this examploe it shows that cultural backgrounds and experiences show some people the way of interpeting the media products as disgraceful and against religion whereas most of them would not think like this.