What does even is the reception and what does it mean?
The term reception (from the Latin receptio – acceptance, reception) originates from the history of law, and during the Renaissance it denoted the acceptance and application of Roman civil and criminal law in European countries. It was later transferred to the humanities, where it marks various forms of acceptance and imitation of ancient models.
Then, what is media reception?
This is a new approach to media research. The way in which the audience reacts and accepts certain content presented through the media.
The focus of media reception research:
a) the way in which media content is presented and its reception by the audience
b) the influence of the audience on the creation of media content
c) the influence of the audience on the survival of the media.
Media reception emerged in the wake of literary reception. Reception is a concept introduced into contemporary literary theory by the Constantinian school of reception aesthetics in the late 1960s. They emphasise the concept of reception as a place of verification of the aesthetic quality of literary works instead of, as before, attributing this quality to the works themselves or their authors.
Reception, according to the theory of literary reception, is a place of verification of the aesthetic quality of literary works.
Key theorists of reception theory: Hans Robert Jauss, Wolfgang Iser and Karl Robert Mandelkov, Manfred Naumann, Robert Weimann, Stanley Fish.
List the subjects of research in reception theory: reader, production, reception and new production, horizon of expectations, social reception, sociology of taste, experiential context, tradition and selection, social function of literature.
Role of the reader according to reception theory: the reader is not just an individual who reads the content, but he participate in the communication process. In modern media, the reader can be interactively involved in various ways, and their activity is not limited to just reading/receiving the content. The influence of the media on behaviour and relationships in society is undeniable, both positive and negative, and is even greater than the influence of a literary text. Hans Robert Jauss does not consider the reader only as an “individual who reads”, but says that he also participates in the communication process and will later motivate social behaviour.
Role of production according to the theory of reception: the role of production is to initiate industrial journalism. This relationship becomes inevitable in understanding modern media. It is important to say that this relationship is determined by the type of media. If the author plans to publish exclusively on the Internet, in that case he will allow himself more freedom in choosing the topic and in the way of writing and will not be constrained by conventions. Reception will then be conditioned by the medium because the horizon of expectations will also be directed in that direction.
Relationship between reception and new production: the relationship between reception and new production will be determined by the type of media. Publishing on the Internet, for example, gives the author greater freedom in choosing a topic and writing style. Reception will also be conditioned by the medium because the reader's horizon of expectations will also be directed in that direction, because the reader, i.e. the media user, has different expectations from different media and even media genres. Media outlets and media editors try to adapt publications to the wishes of the audience, primarily for financial reasons. Giving importance exclusively to this relationship, and downplaying other driving relationships (public interest, the educational role of the media) leads to a decline in the quality of the media, but also to their increasing role in society.
The Horizon of Expectations
Karl Robert Mandelk divides the horizon of expectations into the expectation of the era, the work, and the author. If we apply the horizon divided in this way to expectations from contemporary media, we will notice that the era expects new, surprising, even shocking publications, always on the very edge of conventionality or, even better, beyond it.
The expectation of a work refers to the connection of a journalist/media outlet to a single work, or a worldview or method of communication.
The expectation of an author is the opposite category to the expectation of a work. In the media sphere, the author does not only have expectations in the direction of his own work and his audience, but also has expectations directed towards the medium from which he expects to push the boundaries of previous achievements and use all its advantages; a wide audience, intermediality and interactive reading, or interactive reception
Social reception
According to reception theorists, individual reception is already determined in advance by the so-called social reception. Social reception is the material and ideological mediators between the work and the reader, such as various social institutions, publishing companies, bookstores, and even literary criticism and literature teaching. The sociology of taste is the science of studying the taste of society/individuals in society.
The Theorists' view of Media Reception!
Basics of studying Hansa Robert Jauss:
Hans Robert Jauss believed that the aesthetics of reception is not an autonomous discipline, self-sufficient in solving its problems, but rather a partial methodological reflection, favorable for upgrading and directed towards cooperation.
We also associate Jauss's novelty with the introduction of the concept of the "horizon of expectations". He believes that a new text "outlines" for the reader (listener) that horizon of expectations and those rules of the game that he knows from earlier texts and which are now being corrected, changed or only reproduced. He introduced a synchronic and diachronic relationship between the work and the audience.
Manfred Naumann and Robert Weimann were the great opponents of Jauss's aesthetics of reception.
Basics of Wolfgang Iser's teachings:
Wolfgang Iser deals in more detail with the relationship between the text and the reader, as well as with the concept of indeterminacy. The more texts lose their indeterminacy, the more the reader is involved in completing its possible conceptions/intentions.
The amount of indeterminacy in literary prose, and perhaps in literature in general, represents the most important element of the reader's involvement in the text. -A member of the Kostani school accepts Jauss's . Introduces the concept of blank spaces - the reader fills in. Iser considers indeterminacy to be the basic prerequisite for action.
Basics of Karl Robert Mandelkov's teachings!
He believes that there are multiple horizons of expectations. Conceptually, there are at least three different foils of expectations that influence the reception process and influence it. Mandelkov calls these foils: the horizon of expectations of the epoch, the horizon of expectations of the work, and the horizon of expectations of the author. Mandelkov introduces different foils of horizons of expectations.
Basics of the teachings of Manfred Naumann and Robert Weimann:
Both are great opponents of Jauss's aesthetics of reception. They start from the Marxist doctrine in which they place literary reception on completely different foundations. The author, the reader, and the work, the process of writing, reading, and the circulation of literature are mutually determined and form a single system of relations. As a starting point, they offered the categories of production and consumption from Karl Marx's Introduction to the Critique of Political Economy. Neumann puts the work first, not the reader. Weinmann also refers to Marx and emphasizes the importance of the history of literature.
Basics of Stanley Fish's teachings:
Also a critic of Jauss's teachings. He believes that authors structure the work, and the reader interprets it according to interpretive communities whose boundaries cannot be clearly delineated, and all members of a community cannot absolutely unite in the act of reading.
Differences can be gender, cultural, racial, and similar. Also, the final outcome of reading cannot be predicted, and the text controls reading and guides it towards some reading goal, turning the real reader into an ideal, implicit one. The aspect of the text appears against the aspect of reading.
Basics of Hans-Georg Gadamer's teachings:
The temporality of a work of art is the basis of Gadamer's understanding of tradition or tradition. The gap between the two horizons, the traditional-historical and the prejudiced-interpreter, is resolved by the "merging of horizons" as the final outcome of dialogue, and this merging also becomes the basis of understanding.
The concept of interpretive community: Both authors and readers are members of an interpretive community. The authors structure the work, and the reader interprets it according to these interpretive communities whose boundaries cannot be clearly outlined, and all members of a community cannot absolutely unite in the act of reading. Differences can be gender, racial, cultural, and the like. The final outcome of reading cannot be predicted. The text governs reading and guides it towards some goal of reading, turning the real reader into an implicit, ideal one. The aspect of the text against the aspect of reading appears.
The relationship between a work and its audience on the synchronic and diachronic levels (according to Hans Robert Jauss):
1. Synchronic level:
It refers to the encounter of a work with its contemporary audience at the moment of publication. In the media, the audience is always contemporary, and the content is short-lived, so this level prevails.
2. Diachronic level:
It denotes the relationship between a work from the past and all readers throughout history to the present day, with the reception of the work changing depending on the historical and social context.
The function of blank spaces is often intentionally used in media manipulation. In journalistic reporting, the reality of the text must not be far from objective reality. For example, when we once talked about the headline Man and woman found dead in apartment. There are a lot of blank spaces, so the reader can make up a story for themselves that may not be true. In “non-journalistic publications” this function is permitted, which allows the reader to be more involved in the process of constituting the meaning of the text.
The possible reception changes: global changes (global warming, internet, industry, transport and tourism), regional conditions (alliance membership, historical connections, regional events, linguistic similarities, geographical contact, worldview similarities), national conditions (war, state of society, wealth/poverty, “state of the nation”), social identity(national, cultural, worldview, racial, religious, ethical, gender, age, urban or rural), daily political events (affaires, democratic elections, disasters, successes), personal reasons (disability/illness/death, unemployment, party membership, minority affiliation) and media influence (the way of presenting all of the above, the choice of topics, “fashion”).
For contemporary media, the concept of the horizon of expectations seems to me to be the most important, because it explains how the audience has some expectations in advance about what they will get from a particular media outlet or journalist. Today, people are looking for content that is interesting, shocking or different, and the media adapt to these desires. Therefore, this concept helps us understand that the media do not shape the audience unilaterally, but rather change themselves according to what the audience wants to see, hear or read.
The role of the audience is becoming primary in modern media because the audience no longer receives content passively, but actively participates in its creation, commenting, dissemination and interpretation. Thanks to the Internet and social networks, users can express their opinions, shape the popularity of content and even influence the topic of future publications. The media therefore adapt to the expectations of the audience, in order to maintain attention and achieve greater readership or viewership, often for economic reasons.
The financial context of media reception: Media outlets and media editors try to adapt publications to the wishes of the audience. The reason for this is finance. In translation, the more media outlets and editors publish content and publications that readers like and want, the more they will be read, the more clicks there will be and thus the more profits.
How does all of this help with your writing?
Theory of reception shifts the way a writer views its work and how readers themselves view it. In the past (before 1960s) the writers and authors alone would get credit for their work being good or bad. However, with reception, this shifts focus on audicance awerness and how they procress and see the work in their eyes. The works and writing pieces become something that needs to be experienced and can't exist alone in a vacuum.
Furthermore, writers can anticipate different interpretations of their work, considering the cultural, social, and personal contexts of readers. If reception determines meaning, writers are able to craft stories with layers, ambiguity, or emotional triggers, knowing readers will co-create meaning.
There's also an important feedback loop. Media reception studies remind writers that audience responses can influence future writing. (example - TV series often adapt storylines based on viewer reactions). Therefore, understanding reception helps writers align (or deliberately clash) with audience expectations, trends, and cultural conversations. This all depends on what kind of story you, the writer, wish to tell.
That's not all, using terms and theory from media reception, you can write a story with characters who consume media and you are able to realistically depict how their reactions, reception and perspective shape the storylines, the dialogue and plot overall. Espeically if your story is deeply tied to media, journalism and books.
by: Nili
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