"Encoding and Decoding" - Stuart Hall

"Encoding and Decoding" - Stuart Hall

1. criticism toward "communication as a circulation circuit"

   • possibility of conceptualising in Althousserian fashion
     • process as a 'compex structure in dominance'
   • Hall's intention to differenciate between discursive production vs. other types of social production
     • meanings and messages (product) = codes
       • undergo a process of signification
         • in the form of discourses
           • they have an EFFECT
         • Encoding & Decoding
           • eg: Broadcasting Structures
             • contain message in 'the form of meaningful discourse'
               • which reflect... "institution-societal relations"
           • rules -> discourse-> meaning
           • May not be symmetrical
             • = misunderstanding
               • connotations
       • framed throughout meanings & ideas and CONTEXT
         • known as "knowledge.in-use"
           • eg: TV communicative process

2. DECODIFICATION

   • constructed out of 3 hipothetical positions
     • operating inside the dominant code
     • negotiated code
       • acknowledges hegemonic definitions but it makes its own rules
     • Oppositional code or"globally contrary way"
       • detotalization of the message to retotalize it
         • eg: discourses in politics