'''Hall's Theory''' of encoding and decoding is a theory of [[reception theory]], developed by [[Stuart Hall (cultural theorist)|Stuart Hall]].
To understand Hall's Theory, it is necessary to review his conception of the process of encoding and decoding. Hall cites Terni in regards to the process of decoding:<blockquote> By the word reading, we mean not only the capacity to identify, and decode a certain number of signs, but also the subjective capacity to pufput them into a creative relation between themselves and with other signs: a capacity which is, by itself, the condition for a complete awareness of one's total environment.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Terini|first=P|title=Memorandum|journal=Council of Europe Colloquy on 'Llnderstanding Teievision', University of Leicester|year=1973}}</ref> </blockquote> In the case of television, the medium takes systemic responsibility in determining the relationship of various signs presented, ordering them for us. Television and other media makers are actively involved in encoding messages using signs which already have deeply embedded meaning:<blockquote>The level of connotation of the visual sign, of its contextual reference and positioning in different discursive fields of meaning and association, is the point where already coded signs intersect with the deep semantic codes of a culture and take on additional more active ideological dimensions.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Hall|first=Stuart|coauthors=Meenakshi Gigi Durham and Douglas M. Kellner, Eds.|title=Encoding/Decoding, in Media And Cultural Studies: Keyworks|year=2001|pages=171}}</ref> </blockquote>
Media makers create texts according to Hall's concept of the dominant code. In the ___domain cultural order there is an imposition of classifications on the social, cultural, and political world. These hierarchical classifications are organized according to dominant and preferred meanings, what Hall describes as "how things work for all practical purposes in this culture."
