How is reception theory relevant to the work of chris hondros

1. How is reception theory relevant to the work of Chris Hondros
Through my research of Chris Hondros, I will see how reception
theory is shown in his work.
Chris Hondros was an American war photographer who covered the
wars in Liberia and Libya. He was killed on the 20th of April 20, 2011,
in Misrata Libya.
Reception theory as developed by Stuart Hall asserts that media
texts are encoded and decoded. The producer encodes messages
and values into their media which are then decoded by the audience.
However, different audience members will decode the media in
different ways and possibly not in the way the producer originally
intended. Stuart Hall states that audience members adopt one of the
following three positions when they decode the text:
Dominant, or Preferred Reading - how the producer wants the
audience to view the media text. Audience members will take this
position if the messages are clear and if the audience member is the
same age and culture; if it has an easy to follow narrative and if it
deals with themes that are relevant to the audience.
Oppositional Reading - when the audience rejects the preferred
reading and creates their own meaning for the text. This can happen
if the media contains controversial themes that the audience
member disagrees with. It can also arise when the media has a
complex narrative structure perhaps not dealing with themes in
modern society. Oppositional reading can also occur if the audience
member has different beliefs or is of a different age or a different
culture.
Negotiated Reading - a compromise between the dominant and
oppositional readings, where the audience accepts parts of the
producer's views, but has their own views on parts as well. This can
occur if there is a combination of some of the above e.g., audience
member likes the media, is of the same age as you and understands

2. some of the messages, but the narrative is complex, and this inhibits
full understanding.
He was born on 14th
March 1970 in New York United States
He was killed on the 20thApril 20, 2011, in Misrata Libya
Chris Hondros was born in New York City to Greek and German
parents immigrant who were child refugees after World War ll. He
spent most of his childhood in Fayetteville, North Caroline, where he
graduated from Terry Sandford High School in 1988.
Hondros studied English literature at North Caroline State
University where he also worked for the Technician, the campus
newspaper. In 1991, Hondros submitted his portfolio and was invited
to attend the Eddie Adams Workshop. After graduating from North
Caroline State in 1993, Hondros moved to Athens, Ohio, and earned
a master's degree at Ohio University School of Visual
Communications. He began his career at the Troy Daily news in Ohio
as an intern and later chief photographer before returning to
Fayetteville in 1996 to begin a career with The Fayetteville
Observer and to be close to his father who died of cancer in 2000.
Hondros left his job at The Fayetteville Observer in 1998 to return to
New York and concentrate on international reporting. From his base
in New York, Hondros worked in most of the world's major conflict
zones since the late 1990s, including Kosovo, Angola, Sierra
Leone, Afghanistan, Kashmir, the West Bank, Iran, and Liberia.
Hondros was awarded the United States Agency for International
Development (USAID) Photojournalism Grant in 1999.In 2001,
Hondros was selected for the Pew Fellowship for International
Reporting through Johns Hopkins University.
Following the September 11 attacks, Hondros took photographs at
ground zero. Hondros went to cover the Liberian Civil War in 2003. It
was here that Hondros photographed Joseph Duo in an image that
graced the front cover of publications worldwide. Hondros also
followed Sen. John Kerry's presidential campaign in 2004.When
Hondo’s returned to cover the Liberian election in 2005, he was able
to meet Joseph Duo again to discuss the progress that had been

3. made in Liberia since his last visit. His work included disasters such
as Hurricane Katrina and the 2010 Haiti earthquake. The United
States presidential election in 2008 found Hondros photographing
Governor and Vice-Presidential candidate Sarah Palin.
His work appeared as the covers of magazines such
as Newsweek and the Economist, and on the front pages of The New
York Times, The Washington Post, and the Los Angeles
Times. Photographer Tyler Hicks described Hondros as a "sensitive
photographer," adding that "He never was in it for himself or for the
vanity of what the job brings with it. He really believes in his work."
His photography was featured in the documentary film, Liberia: A
Fragile Peace.
This photo was taken during the Liberian civil war in 2003. It is of a
teenager called Joseph Duo after he fired an RPG at Rebel forces
In Monrovia, Liberia. The focus of the photo is Duo as he jumps in
the air under gunfire with his arms stretched out. In the
background of the photo is a man clouded by smoke on his knees
on the floor. The smoke in the background makes Duo stand out
even more.

4. This photo is of a rebel fighter celebrating his comrades firing a
rocket barge towards troops fighting for Libyan ruler Moammar
Gadhafi during the 2nd
Libyan revolution in 2011. You can see in
the foreground you have the rebel fighter with his gun in the air.
He is dressed in green witch. A dark colour in the photo whereas
all around him is the yellow and orange of the desert. The camara
is showing him look at the rocket being fired. You can see the reed
truck is in the centre of the photo with the solder in the
foreground to the left of the photograph
Reception theory applies to the work of Chris Hondros. For example,
when people look at this photo, they see a teenager who is
celebrating that he has just killed some people or somebody in the
middle of a civil war that is the Negotiated reading of the photograph
however some people would see someone who has just murdered
some in a brutal act of war and that he should not celebrate that is
the oppositional response and there is the dominant or the preferred
reading of the photograph this is the reading that the Hondros
wanted to show with this photo.
When interviewed about the pictures by the Columbia Journalism
Review, Hondros said: "Almost every soldier in Iraq has been
involved in some sort of incident like that or another. Their attitude
about it was grim, but it was not the end of their world. It was, 'well,

5. [I] kind of wished they'd stopped. We fired warning shots. Damn, I do
not know why the hell they did not stop. What are you doing later,
you want to play Nintendo? OK.' Just a day's work for them. That
stuff happens in Iraq a lot." This quote shows the absurdity of the
situation that Hondros was covering and how one second there is
complete chaos and the next you are wondering what you are doing
after you get back to base
I have applied reception theory to my work by making a factual
project where the outcome of someone views can be interpretation.
I tried to keep it nonbiased and stick to facts or what an expert
knows, this will help the audience draw their own conclusion and
meaning from the facts I have presented them. In my FMP this year I
will get stories from both sides and videos with context so the
watcher can draw their conclusion with what they have been given. I
have seen other documentaries on the topic have I have chosen they
are non-biased and try to paint an entire picture of what is going on.
This I what I aim to do with my documentary. For my FMP I want to
interview 4 people 2 for the military side of the documentary and 2
for the civilian side of the documentary. During my factual project I
wanted to show a snapshot of what is and was going on in China as
there neighbouring country (Afghanistan was destabilising) the
answers I got where what I wanted but also when I looked back on
the video, I found that they could be read differently by someone
else watching it say in China or America as it is about the American
withdrawal from the Afghanistan, the Americans could view this as a
big loss because they lost a lot of solders in Afghanistan since they
first went into their withdrawal but I can also be seen as a win from
the Chines point of view as the once mighty America was pushed out
of a country they had been in for 20 years.
In conclusion reception theory is very relevant to the work or Chris
Hondros as his photos are meant for a newspaper and meant to be
looked at differently by different people.

6. Bibliography:
Sean O'Hagan. (Wed 11 May 2011). Chris Hondros obituary. Available:
https://www.theguardian.com/media/2011/may/11/chris-hondros-obituary. Last
accessed 16th DEC 2021.