Mottagandet

Mottagandet is a Swedish noun meaning the act of receiving something, or the way something is received. In everyday usage it can refer to the reception at an event, such as a welcome of guests, or to the broader reception of a person, policy, or cultural work.

Within media and social sciences, mottagandet denotes how audiences, critics, or the public respond to a message, work, proposal, or institution. It covers initial reactions, interpretive readings, and evaluative judgments, and can be studied through surveys, reviews, audience metrics, and qualitative analysis. The term is closely linked to reception theory, which emphasizes the active role of audiences in constructing meaning rather than assuming a single intended interpretation by the creator.

The grammatical form mottagandet is the definite singular of ett mottagande. The indefinite form is mottagande, meaning "reception" or "welcoming." The word belongs to standard Swedish and is used in formal and academic writing as well as in journalism.

In practice, discussions of mottagandet appear in analyses of films, books, policies, or events, focusing on how reception varies over audiences, cultures, and time.