Encoding and decoding are factors that need to be taken into consideration when it comes to cultural analysis, as they are tools used to interpret encoded messages. These messages in question are often hidden deep within texts, ads, televised commercials and vice versa. Much of the meanings given to modern day society stem directly from representations found within the media.
The process of encoding and decoding are fundamental elements in the sphere of mass communications because of their applicability and affiliation to the existence of an audience. Audiences are those in charge of giving meanings to the media. The media was created for an audience and if it were not for audiences, media would not subsist.
Over the years, cultural theorist Stuart Hall has argued that representation, notably in media, itself creates the world it attempts to depict and he examined how language, signs and images give meaning to the culture and society we live in, rather than reflecting it. Hall also stated that the process of decoding is much more complex than the encoding process.
Hall suggested t...
Stuart Hall emphasizes that the popular is constantly evolving. And due to this ever-changing society, the ways in which things are perceived is changing as well. This concept, coined articulation theory, is one of the huge reasons behind artistic expression. Throughout all of history, stories, evidence, and art are forgotten, altered, or misperceived. Because so many important parts of the past are overlooked, artists and writers focus on drawing the attention of modern society to these buried antiquities. However, because the global has changed in such monumental ways, these important ideas are expressed differently. These forms of expression are represented in innovative and thought provoking, yet rather uncomfortable ways. However, the
“The images produced by popular culture play a real role in shaping people’s perceptions (Bird 11).
...tions. The amount of meanings changed within theories, but there is no criticism of audience activity, it is a vital role in cultural studies which does go uncritisised and celebrated as it creates the basis for cultural studies and the need for interpretation of messages.
...o shape interpretations through presentation of meaning and experience, it must be accepted that popular culture artifacts have agency ranging from the individual level to the level of international politics.
Elliot Eisner, in his book Cognition and Curriculum Reconsidered, talks about forms of representation. He defines forms of representation as “the devices that humans use to make public conceptions that are privately held.” (Eisner, p. 39) He says that these can take multiple forms ranging from oral speech to music to images. Eisner gives the example of a painter who comes across a small mid-west town. Eisner suggests that if the painter were to want to express his private conceptions about the town to the public, he would most likely do so through the form of a painting. This is important because how a person expresses their selves is founded in their own personal literacy. What if the painter was asked to tell someone about the town and he was not allowed to use painting as a form of representation? How would the painter then be able to do so to the best of his ability? What this proves is that multiple forms of representation are needed because every person is different in their literary preferences. Indeed, Eisner states that to be refrained from using a form of representation “would eventually not only limit expression, but put the brakes on conception as well.
Stuart hall is a cultural theorist and member of The Birmingham School of Cultural Studies his work explores the way meaning is constructed through language; as a result, culture emerges through this process of representation. Representation to Stuart Hall is the production of meaning through language, and is vital to the creation of culture, for it conveys meaning (Stuart Hall). Meaning is fluid and requires a translation in order for meaning to be conveyed two variables need to be present, encoding and decoding. Encoding is when the producer places a specific message to a text, while decoding is the process where the receiver derives meaning from the text (Barnes 2016). Our interpretation of meaning differs, for our cultural codes influence
Firstly, Laswell’s theory asks the first question: who is the person trying to deliver a message? And the answer should be whether it is a TV show, a book, or any other form of media. Secondly, another question asks: what is the message? Is it direct or is it indirect? The answer should answer this question by discussing the message’s content. Thirdly, Laswell suggests that a channel at which the message is delivered is present, whether it is television, internet, social media, newspapers, or bookstores. Fourthly, the audience, whether it is people who read, watch, or interact with the information shared by different forms of media, is determined. It is determined based on gender, age groups, language, and interests. In other words, the result answers the question “who watches the show?” or “who reads this book”. Fifthly, Laswell suggests that who communicates the message, what is communicated, where it is communicated, and to whom it’s communicated are all factors that lead to the end-point of this process, which is the effect. The effect is mostly the audience’s
This essay is based on Marshall McLuhan (1967) theory, which states that the medium is the message. McLuhan states that the form of a message determines the ways in which that message will be perceived.
The media is actually used as a channel of disseminating information to the audience. And the media influence cultural, moral, political, economic and religious values because they tend to set the agenda for its audience. Not only setting the agenda but also framing. The media tend to frame the central organizing ideas for news content, entertainment, which supplies a context and suggests what the issue is through the use of selection, emphasis exclusion and elaboration.
Symbols and images have a more than significant impact on one?s views of the world. Since childhood, a person?s brain uses representation of images into meanings to make sense of their world. These images then go on to being either the truth or falsehood and base a person?s views of the world for the rest of their life. All this can be explained through the idea of representation of everyday cultural mediums; such as advertisements and the television.
---. 1980. "Encoding/Decoding." In Paul Morris and Sue Thornton (eds.), Media Studies: A Reader. 2nd edn. Washington Square, NK: University Press, 2000, pp. 51-61.
Pop culture, in and of itself, contains a plethora of mediums to find representation of self through. When looking at such pop culture mediums as art, movies, music, and even the more recent use of memes and slang, that mainstream media is able to influence an individual's attitudes towards certain topics by the idea of such representation. “‘Representation,’... is typically thought of as this idea that when
When taking in media such as television it is a very targeted intake of information that a director has formulated to send a message into my eyes and ears, the viewers eyes and ears, it sends a cultural message that is designed to impact me. A clear example of this is the show The Goldbergs it is a targeted effort to familiarize America with the life experience of a classically Jewish family living in suburban America. The show communicates the challenges that impact the life of a Jewish family, the Goldbergs, how they overcome their challenges and how their culture affects their day to day lives in America. Through using television as a channel of communication the director is able to create a narrative that taps into the average viewer and send the message that Jewish families have cultural differences from many Americans. It makes the viewer sympathetic to the challenges that the Jewish community faces from issues of religious discrimination and the constant attempt to minimize their cultural traditions. But, because it is done through a comedic narrative and the characters have universally relatable features it draws the individual into the culturally diverse world of Jewish Americans. Channel can manifest itself in other forms of communication such as social media, which impacts me personally on a daily basis. I am constantly updated on how the day to day lives of people in different cultures
Throughout this paper I will be discuss and describe these three articles about Stuart Hall cultural studies theory the Cultural Studies: Two Paradigms from Media, Culture and Society, then the Cultural Studies in the Future tense and Sexing the Self: Gendered Positions in Cultural Studies theory.
9. Fiske, J., 2010. Introduction to communication studies [electronic resource] Available at: http://rgu.eblib.com/patron/FullRecord.aspx?p=958077 [Accessed 18.3.2014]