The right to die: a Belgian case study combining reception studies and discourse theory

While a tradition of cross-fertilization between media studies and discourse theory has sprung up over the last decades, audience reception studies have remained outside the scope of discourse-theoretical media scholars. This article fills that gap and asserts that combining the discourse theory of Laclau and Mouffe (further developed by the Essex School) with reception studies provides a valuable and original approach that enhances scholars’ understanding of the complex and versatile ways in which individuals engage with the ideological systems of meaning put to work in media texts. The discourse-theoretical approach insists on regarding audience reception as the meaning-making practice where discourses are used, negotiated, and contested in shaping personal narratives around media texts, all against the backdrop of a contingent social reality. A case study focusing on audience receptions of Belgian media representations of euthanasia illustrates the applicability and value of the discourse-theoretical approach. The analysis shows how audiences, while being highly familiarized with the right to die project, shift between different logics of identifying with the discourses of patient autonomy, independence, and hedonism activated in the media texts, depending on the capability of these discourses in providing the material for people to make sense of lived experiences.