Encoding/decoding model

Hannah, Loran & Jacob

Definition Contemporary semioticians refer to the

creation and interpretation of texts as 'encoding' and 'decoding' respectively.

In 1973, Stuart Hall published a paper entitled 'Encoding/decoding‘. This had a major influence on cultural studies, and many of the terms it included remain influential in the media. The essay takes up and challenges long held assumptions on how media messages are produced, circulated and consumed, proposing a new theory of communication.

Hall's essay challenged all three components of the mass communications model. It argued that:(i) meaning is not simply fixed or determined by the sender(ii) the message is never transparent(iii) the audience is not a passive recipient of meaning.

In 'Encoding/decoding', Hall suggests media messages use a common-sense status through their performative nature. For example, through the repeated performance, staging or telling of the narrative of '9/11‘, a culturally specific interpretation becomes not only simply plausible and universal, but is elevated to "common-sense.”