Videogames 8 - Assassin's Creed and reception theory

Revising the encoding/decoding model

Reception theory is often attributed to Stuart Hall. It argues that producers use media language to encode meanings within media products, which audiences can then decode and negotiate in a variety of different ways.

Audiences may agree with the preferred reading of the product, in other words they will agree with the ideology of the producer. The audience also may disagree with the producer's ideology and form an oppositional reading of the product. It is most likely, however, that the audience will negotiate the message of the producer, and will agree with certain ideological aspects while rejecting others. 

key theory 17- reception theory, Stuart Hall

(advertising, newspapers, radio, videogames, television, magazines)

• To watch/read/play/listen to/consume a media product is a process involving encoding by producers and decoding by audiences.
• There are millions of possible responses that can be affected through factors such as upbringing, cultural capital, ethnicity, age, social class, and so on.
• Hall narrowed this down to three ways in which messages and meanings may be decoded:
• The preferred reading - the dominant-hegemonic position, where the audience understands and accepts the ideology of the producer.
• The negotiated reading - where the ideological implications of producer’s message is agreed with in general, although the message is negotiated or picked apart by the audience, and they may disagree with certain aspects.
• The oppositional reading - where the producer’s message is understood, but the audience disagrees with the ideological perspective  in every respect.

key definitions

Encoding - An encoder is somebody who presents an idea or perspective 

Decoding - A decoder is somebody who picks apart the message ideology/perspective and works out their own take on it

Encoding and Decoding - the producer will encode meaning and the audience will decode it in lots of different ways. It might be the opposite of what the producer intended, but is this okay?

The ideological perspective of the producer - this is encoded in every media product, through media language. Every media product therefore demonstrates a mediated perspective of reality, and betrays the biases, assumptions and ideological goals of the producer 

Preferred reading - (can also be known as dominant reading) the audience agrees with the dominant ideological perspective encoded by the producer

Oppositional reading - the audience disagrees with the ideological perspective of the producer

Negotiated reading - by far the most common reading, the audience agrees with certain ideological aspects of the media product, while dismissing and disagreeing with others

Issues with reception theory - Do we even have to accept a dominant ideology in the first place? Theorists, such as David Gauntlet (theories around identity) and Henry Jenkins (fandom) both suggest that audiences can largely ignore intended dominant ideological perspectives and can interpret media products in any way they wish.

negotiating the assassins creed franchise

What is the ideological perspective of Ubisoft? What messages are they demonstrating to their audience?

ubisoft intends for the audience to truly engage with thr game and want to get into the franchise so they can profit off them later. they mean for the players to have fun and get hooked into the storyline. although the violence we see can put forward a messge to its players that violence is acceptable which is not the games intentions.