Audiences’ own cultures block mass media from having automatic effects

Evidence

As he points out, this means that the cultural industries cannot be assumed to have automatic effects—as their audiences bring cultures and values of their own to the moment of consumption. — Hall, Stuart, Essential Essays, Volume 1, 122

Categorization

• DEFINE: This is the kernel of Hall’s later ‘negotiated decoding’ model of the media — the claim that meaning is produced at the point of consumption, not imposed by production.
• XREF: Connects to the reader’s interest in how ideological consent is won (or not won) — the same mechanism Hall later uses to explain Thatcherism’s authoritarian populism.