Stuart Hall
The Theory of Preferred Reading
Or the process of ENCODING / DECODING, as Stuart Hall suggests that messages are actually ENCODED AND DECODED.
Stuart Hall went on to suggest that audience actually decode and interpret messages in different ways. He calls this the THEORY OF PREFERRED READING and puts forward the argument that audiences either accept the dominant reading of a text (A DOMINANT READING) or they reject the dominant reading of a text (AN OPPOSITIONAL READING), or they take up a reading somewhere in between (A NEGOTIATED READING).