RUNNINGHEADENCODING-DECODINGSTUARTHALLENCODING....docx

11 encoding/decodingrunning head: encoding/decoding stuart hall: encoding-decoding model zoey nguyen jmc 600the study of television in culture had its beginning during the mid-1970s (durham & kellner, 2002). stuart hall opened up new possibilities for analyzing television through the use of cultural theory and sociology. for his analysis of television, he developed a theoretical model which explained the influence of television discourse. hall specifically named this theory “encoding/decoding”. halls model has been the most influential used in media studies within the last few decades. as an attempted synthesis, this model combines semi-logical insights with marx theory. talking about encoding/decoding, hall wants people to understand in general that the encoding/decodings proposed meaning does not simply appear in a media texts code, but is the result of a negotiation between audiences and texts (petra, folke & erik, 1998). also, it explains how people make sense of media texts. in the business market, encoding/decoding bridges the gap between media production, distribution, and consumption because in many cases there are misunderstandings between production, distribution and consumption (petra, folke & erik, 1998).halls theory has simplified the view of media having a powerful effect which can directly cause certain behaviors in individuals. the strength of the encoding-decoding model is that it provides a simple way to support the possibility of successful communication. the hypodermic needle model, dating form 1920s, is one of several good examples of this improvement. the needle theory is the first attempt to explain how mass audiences may react to mass media. it suggests that audiences passively receive information transmitted through a media text, without attempting to process or challenge the data being transmitted. it means that the information from a text that passes into the audience members minds is uncontrolled (hanes, 2000). the experience, intelligence, and opinion of an individual are not part of receiving of the text. as an audience, people are manipulated by the producers of media text, so that a persons thinking and behavior can be changed easily by media producers. audiences are passive (hanes, 2000). briefly, comparing to the needle theory, halls theory suggests that the audience is both active and passive, and that it is an incredible improvement from the classical opinion of media. the encoding/decoding model is an important process in the communicative exchange. its main purpose is to locate the feature and message meaning with the audience (or receiver). stuart hall emphasized the stages of changes through which any media message passes on the way from its beginning to its reception and understanding (chandler, 2001). it starts from the basic belief which assumed that the media messages are always able to have multiple meanings depending on the culture and background of the receiver; and any meaningful messages can have denotative and connotative meanings (durham, 2002). actually, the message in its natural design must be encoded by the source and decoded by the receiver so that an exchange is produced. the broadcaster assumes that the audience is sending the message; hall supports the view that audiences are in disagreement to both the source and receiver messages. in the model of encoding-decoding of media discourses developed by stuart hall, the meaning of the text is located somewhere between its producer and the reader. most texts can be read in several ways but there is generally a preferred or dominant way in which the message is meant to be read according to the producers intended meaning (seeing, 2002). as an important position, hall thought that the most popular media content has a preferred reading that reinforces the original intended message. the producer (encoder) framed (or encoded) it in a certain way, while the reader (decoder) decodes it differently according to their personal background, the various different social situations and frames of interpretation (seeing, 2002).according to halls theory, meanings in the text are not a fixed idea. the meanings exist in certain positions which are the balancing points in the process of the encoder encoding and the decoder decoding. (seeing, 2002). communicators encode messages and manipulate language. typically, encoders are trying to change their version of a certain meaning because of their personal backgrounds and cultural views to the decoder, while the decoder will be changing the original meaning into a new version according to their background (chandler, 2001). receivers are not required to accept messages as they are sent but can, and do, resist certain influences by applying different and resistant readings. for example when audiences read a sentence, they not only decode the individual words but also need to interpret the structure of the sentences in order to make sense of the statement as a whole.a technical aspect from television discourse, hall drew a diagram as follows: technical infrastructure of productions of knowledge encoding (meaning structures 1) program as a meaningful discourse decoding (meaning structures 2) framework of knowledge of technical infrastructure (durham & kellner, 2002). the “meaning structures 1” of the broadcaster is not always part of the “meaning structures 2” from the audience (seeing, 2002). owing to the fact that the message cannot be understood unless it produces the intended reaction within the audiences. specifically, hall proposed that there are three audience responses or three distinct reading positions including dominant reading, negotiated reading, and oppositional reading (durham & kellner, 2002). not only in the television field but also in the advertising industry, halls theory has been applied productively. for the 1st response, when the decoders position is near to the encoders, he / she will interpret within the frame of the dominant code. at this moment, the preferred reading happens (clarke, 2002). applying to advertisement, when the decoders position is similar to the encoders position, the consumers understanding is within the structure of the dominant code of commercial. with the 2nd response, the decoder will take a negotiated position, which accepts some parts of the dominant meaning, but rejects and alters others, to match their own understandings and goals (clarke, 2002). a commercial of an iphone 4 is one of example. a new product can change potential consumers into sceptics who may or may not purchase an iphone. they may be persuaded by each of these advertising strategies slightly, but not enough to purchase a product. instead of looking directly at the advertisements the decoder may decide to look at the stylistic features, or the specifications of a particular model of the iphone and, based on these, the decoder may choose to not purchase an iphone 4 or to purchase an iphone 4. for the 3rd response, when the decoders way of thinking is opposite to the encoders, the decoder will create their own translation of the message with a different meaning. the decoder interprets the dominant meanings differently than the encoder intended. briefly, these three positions have their uses as decoding strategies of which the decoders use. it is the goal of the encoder to use an analytical measure to target consumers who will decode in a negotiated or oppositional position. encoders are aware that decoders who take an oppositional or negotiated position exist and that their strategies will have to adapt and change until they have convinced these negotiated stances to become a consumer (clarke, 2002).turning back with the original start of television discourse, the codes of encoding and decoding may not be perfectly symmetrical, for the reason of understanding and misunderstanding in the communicative exchange and the different structure between broadcasting and audiences. television sign is a complex (connotative) sign. it is made up of two types of discourse: visual and aural (durham & kellner, 2002). moreover, it is an iconic sign because it shows several properties of presented things. the visual sign takes on an active ideological dimension at the level of connotation, which already coded signs intersect with deep semantic codes. advertising discourse illustrates this point, every sign connotes a quality, situation, value, or inference which is present as an implied meaning, depending on the position of connotation (durham & kellner, 2002). durham & kellner (2002) explained a good example of barther about a sweater:the sweater always signifies a “warm garment” (denotation) and thus the activity/value of “keeping warm”. but it is also possible, at its more connotative levels, to signify “the coming winter” or “cold day”. and, in the specialized sub-codes of fashion, sweater may also connote a fashionable style of haute couture or, alternatively, an informal dress. but set against the right visual background and positioned by the romantic sub-code, it may connote “long autumn walk in the woods”.premising on stuart halls encoding/decoding, there was an analysis of the discourse of mormon couples regarding television and popular media culture from david w. scott. this study examines the reading of television texts from the perspective of audience member who are, because of their religious practices, ideologically situated to the right of much that is offered on television (david, 2003). david suggests that religious audiences adopt different discourses and apply varying reading of media and religious texts (david, 2003). this study shifts the emphasis from what these members watch despite institutional condemnation of certain program to how these members constitute themselves as mormons who enjoy or shun such programming. david (2003) said that the focus of study is to examine how a group members of church of jesus christ of latter-day saints discursively construct their media experience within the broader rubric of the institutional rhetoric emphasizing the threat of television to their religiosity and traditional family values. by interviewing six couples with two in-depth questions, david (2003) found out that the negotiated readings of television texts from the perspectives of audience members who are ideologically situated to the right of much that is offered on television in terms of their religious practices. this discovery further validate the encoding/decoding model by revealing how religious texts and media texts are negotiated by respondents attempting to situate themselves (david, 2003). especially, this study highlights how media texts are interpreted by individuals, how they discursively construct their religiosity as audience members, and the impact of this discourse on their readings of television texts (david, 2003).encoding/decoding not only works well for the television field but also is very helpful in womens studies in communication. nancy worthington from quinnipiac applied successfully halls theory in study of “encoding and decoding rape news: how progressive reporting inverts textual orientation”. worthington tries to explore the relationship between the production and reception of practices in a specific kind of sexual assault news story: an instance of progressive investigative reporting about a campus rape scandal on local television news. the study also invests hegemony in action by bringing out aspects that conflict over sexual assault discourse in the related moments of encoding, text, and decoding (worthington, 2008). worthington (2008) suggests that a meaningful analysis of audience responses to progressive rape news requires which textual themes attract mostly a response and the orientation of the reading to the text including selection of preferred, negotiated, or oppositional. the study proved that reception analyses would benefit from examining the texts orientation to dominant cultural discourses, rather than assuming that the position established in a preferred reading equates with dominant cultural discourses (worthington, 2008). a news producer and central source negotiated the constraints of mainstream media to encode a news text with a preferred reading that challenged dominant discourses related to victim-blaming and suspect mitigation. with sexual assault discourse, the study illustrates how news consumers can capitalize on openings emerging from progressive news coverage paired with an online forum. the research suggests that when media consumers respond to news texts on the web site of the media outlet, they access a forum in which they can exercise social power born out of media interpretation (worthington, 2008). the encoding/decoding model has had many arguments over different points, including the principles that its built from, explanation vagueness, holes in its rules, and oversimplified writings (hanes, 2000). a few major arguments of the encoding/decoding model come from the models core principles. the model failed to explain many of its own principles for which it was built upon and the model failed to explain assumptions which contained political bias. the methods of research used were biased toward particular political views, which tainted portions of the research, and the structure required by the research used, as a result, had altered its main purpose of creating an audience generated aesthetic (hanes, 2000). critics point to the obvious political segments of decoding and the models belief that television only reproduces the ideas of dominant culture. another point of argument within the encoding/decoding model involves the issue of definition vagueness and holes in its rules (hanes, 2000). for example the term code is used in many ways and has added a general vagueness to the explanation and description of the model.overly simplified content is also seen as an issue and argument within the encoding/decoding model (hanes, 2000). this includes the models lack of recognition for the role of sound, sound effects and music in the production of visual communications and the relationship between visual and aural codes. it has been argued that the model exaggerates the importance of the media (hanes, 2000). the focus on text and audience leaves out several things that should be included in the cultural studies, such as an analysis of how texts are created while taking into account unbiased politics (hanes, 2000). critics also argue that the models method for a television program being set as work instead of text, fails to explain the issue of pleasure and its effects. referenceschandler, d. (2001). semiotics for beginners: encoding/decoding. aberystwyth university. ret