Encoding/decoding model of communication: Difference between revisions

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'''The Encoding/decoding model of communication''' was first developed by cultural studies scholar [[Stuart Hall (cultural theorist)|Stuart Hall]] in 1973. Titled 'Encoding and Decoding in the Television Discourse', Hall's essay offers a theoretical approach of how media messages are produced, disseminated, and interpreted.<ref name="Encoding and Decoding">{{cite web |last1=Hall |first1=Stuart |title=Encoding and Decoding in the Television Discourse |url=https://www.birmingham.ac.uk/Documents/college-artslaw/history/cccs/stencilled-occasional-papers/1to8and11to24and38to48/SOP07.pdf |website=University of Birmingham |access-date=27 October 2019}}</ref> Hall proposed that audience members can play an active role in decoding messages as they rely on their own [[Social environment|social contexts]], and might be capable of changing messages themselves through [[collective action]].

In simpler terms, encoding/decoding is the translation of a message that is easily understood. When you decode a message, you extract the meaning of that message in ways that make sense to you. Decoding has both verbal and non-verbal forms of communication: Decoding behavior without using words means observing body language and its associated emotions. For example, some body language signs for when someone is upset, angry, or stressed would be a use of excessive hand/arm movements, red in the face, crying, and even sometimes silence. Sometimes when someone is trying to get a message across to someone, the message can be interpreted differently from person to person. Decoding is all about the understanding of what someone already knows, based on the information given throughout the message being received. Whether there is a large audience or exchanging a message to one person, decoding is the process of obtaining, absorbing, understanding, and sometimes using the information that was given throughout a verbal or non-verbal message.

For example, since advertisements can have multiple layers of meaning, they can be decoded in various ways and can mean something different to different people.<ref>{{cite book|first1=Aidan|last1=Kelly|first2=Katrina|last2=Lawlor|first3=Stephanie|last3=O'Donohoe|chapter=Chapter 8: Encoding Advertisements: The Creative Perspective|title=The Advertising and Consumer Culture Reader|editor1-first=Joseph|editor1-last=Turow|editor2-first=Matthew P.|editor2-last=McAllister|publisher=[[Routledge]]|___location=Hoboken, New Jersey|date=2009|isbn=978-0415963305|pages=133–49}}</ref>