<![CDATA[The development of digital media has contributed to the growing popularity of the Boys’ Love (BL) genre in many countries, including Indonesia. This genre has become not only a form of entertainment but also a source of diverse interpretations, criticisms, and concerns among audiences. This study aims to analyze how viewers interpret Boys’ Love content, identify the criticisms and concerns that emerge, and examine audience reception positions based on Stuart Hall’s Encoding-Decoding theory. The research employed a qualitative approach using reception analysis as its method. Data were collected through in-depth interviews with four informants who had experience watching Boys’ Love content. The findings reveal that audiences have diverse interpretations of the Boys’ Love genre. Some informants perceive it as entertainment that promotes values such as empathy, self-acceptance, and respect for diversity. However, others criticize the idealized representation of romantic relationships and the ease of content accessibility through digital media. In addition, concerns related to religious values, social norms, and the influence of media on younger audiences were identified. Based on Stuart Hall’s theory, the informants’ reception positions were categorized into dominant-hegemonic, negotiated, and oppositional positions. These findings demonstrate that audiences actively construct meaning from media messages according to their backgrounds, experiences, and personal values. Therefore, interpretations of the Boys’ Love genre are not uniform but vary among viewers.]]>
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