Reception Theory

A framework that examines how audiences actively interpret, negotiate, and construct meaning from artworks or texts, emphasizing the roles of historical era, cultural norms, social identity, and interpretive strategies rather than treating meaning as fixed solely within the author or the text.

An interpretive approach that locates meaning in the interaction between media texts and audiences: different viewers or communities decode the same text differently based on cultural frameworks, social position, prior knowledge and situational context, so meaning is negotiated rather than simply transmitted.