Between public good and the freedom of the consumer: negotiating the space, orientation and position of us in the reception of alcohol policy editorials

David Morley has argued that the `preferred reading' (encoding/decoding) model developed by Stuart Hall at the beginning of the 1970s, while needing amendment in various respects, still offers a promising alternative to a conception of media texts as equally open to any kinds of interpretation. In this article, I accept Morley's challenge to develop further the preferred reading model with a case study in which 55 people interpret two editorials on alcohol policy. I approach the reception from the viewpoint of identity construction and propose that the preferred reading can be understood as a positioning of the audience in terms of the categories and story lines.