class presentation on Encoding and Decoding by Stuart Hall

1. ENCODING & DECODING
-Stuart Hall
Presented by
Mukesh Pradhan
MAJMC 2nd Semester
H00MAJMC20210073
The EFL University, Hyderabad

2. ABSTRACT
Introduction
Four Autonomous stages
Use of Semiotics/Semiology in Halls Work
Three Position upon Decoding Messages
Conclusion

3. INTRODUCTION
Stuart Hall
 Essay titled “Encoding & Decoding in the Television Discourse”
concentrates on communication process in televisual discourse and
is an insightful analysis of how media messages are produced,
circulated, consumed and interpreted.
 Hall brought attention to the active role played by the audience and
propounded a new theory of communication.
 Mark the turn towards structuralism in Hall’s and CCC’s research.

4. Traditional view: media messages are static, transparent and remain the same
during communication.
Hall challenges all three components of mass communications model, arguing that
1. Meaning can not simply be fixed or determined by the sender;
2. The message is never transparent; and
3. The audience is not a passive recipient of meaning.
 Message is rarely interpreted as it was intended, distortion happens
systematically. Reformulates the linear model of communication found within mass
communication research.
 His model claims that TV and other media audiences are presented with messages
that are decoded or interpreted in different ways depending on an individual's
cultural background, economic standing, and personal experiences.

6. FOUR AUTONOMOUS STAGES
1. Production- this is where the encoding of a message takes place.
2. Circulation- this is the stage when messages are transmitted or circulated.
3. Use (consumption/understanding)- this is the decoding or interpreting of a
message.
4. Reproduction-What is the reaction after consuming the message is the stage of
reproduction.
Sender Messages Channel Receiver
Encoding Decoding
Feedback

7. USE OF SEMIOTICS IN HALL’S WORK
Hall claims that the active audience does not simply digest messages encoded by the
producers. Encoding process puts parameters on audience for decoding.
Encoding process, however, can not guarantee how the message will be decoded.
According to Ferdinand De Saussure, language is nothing but a system of signs,
which has to be studied as a complete system.
Signifier- in semiology, the symbol that represent some other meaning is called a
signifier.
Signified- in semiology, the thing referred to by a signal is called as signified.

8. Denotation
• Literal meaning
• Obvious
• Describes
• Realm of existence
Connotation
• Figurative
• Inferred
• Suggested meaning
• Realm of myth
 Signifier can be Connotative or Denotative. For a denotative signifier, multiple
deconstructions are not possible and the Connotative signifier can have several associative
meanings.

9. Ex: red is just colour in its
denotative meaning.
Ex: in connotative meaning
red is not just a colour, here
above pictures indicating red
is ‘stop’ and ‘danger’

10. THREE POSITION IN DECODING MESSAGES
1. Dominant/Hegemonic Position-This position is one where the consumer takes the
actual meaning directly.
2. Negotiated Position- This position is a mixture of accepting and rejecting
elements; as Hall states, “decoding within the negotiated version contains a
mixture of adaptive and oppositional elements…”.
3. Oppositional Position- The viewers here completely negate the encoded message.

11. CONCLUSION
In encoding a message, the sender sends up a set of parameters to help the receiver
to decode the message.
Stuart Hall says that even a denotative communication is not free of ideological
interventions. For a researcher, separating a signifier as connotative and denotative
is merely an ideological tool.
Advertisements are example of connotative communication where power and
ideology play an dominant role.
Misunderstanding is occur when the map of preferred meaning is not taken into
account by the communicator or communicatee.
Polysemy- multiple meaning may create new meaning out of the text.

12. THANK YOU