COM 327 January 17, 2013

Encoding / Decoding

1. Quiz2. Unit overview3. Stuart Hall & cultural studies4. Group work: Close reading5. Encoding/decoding in practice

Quiz!

Question 1:

‘Encoding’ refers to the activities of media producers. ‘Decoding’ refers to the activities of media _________.

a) Educatorsb) Consumersc) Dupesd) Conglomerates

Question 2:

“But if we think of the visual representation of a ____ in a manual on animal husbandry – and, even more, of the linguistic sign “___” – we can see that both, in different degrees, are arbitrary with respect to the concept of the animal they represent.”

What is Hall using as an example?

a) cowb) baconc) symbold) Communism

Question 3:

Hall distinguishes between the denotative and _________ meanings of symbols.

a) Connotativeb) Hyperactivec) Falsed) Productive

Question 4:

The three positions, or modes, of ‘decoding’ in Hall’s model are:

a) Happy, Angry & Boredb) Aggressive, Passive & Passive-

aggressivec) Dominant-hegemonic, Negotiated &

Counter-hegemonicd) Transmission, Ritual, Symbolic

Group work!Group 1: From start (p. 163) to end of second par on p. 164 “…forms only a part”

Group 2: From p. 164, “From this general perspective”, to end of first para on p. 166, “…(to acquire social use value or political effectivity).”

Group 3: From top p. 166, “Clearly, what we labeled…” to bottom p. 166, “…as if we were unable to comprehend this epistemological distinction”.

Group 4: From bottom p. 166, “The televisual sign is a complex one…” to bottom p. 167, “whereas the visual sign appears to possess some of those properties”

Group 5: From bottom p. 167, “This may help us to clarify a confusion in current linguistic theory…”, to top of p. 169, “…the fragments of ideology”

Group 6: From p. 169, “The so-called denotative level…” to middle p. 170, “... these items are arranged”.

Group 7: From middle p. 170, “This brings us to the question …” to p. 171 “…in order to reinforce the point of “no necessary correspondence”

Group 8: P. 173. “We identify three hypothetical positions…” to END.

Summarize your section in 2-4 sentences.

Identity & RepresentationPrimary approach: CULTURAL STUDIES

Guiding questions:• Whose voices, identities and

experiences most often get communicated in mainstream media?

• Whose do not?• Whose interests does this serve?• How & why does this matter?

Cultural studies• Brought considerations of POWER

(social, economic, political, sexual, technological) to our understanding of communication & media

• Did so by bringing in other theories outside of communication studies to modify the “transmission” model

• Hall: foundational to these efforts

Stuart HallDid not challenge the basic FORM of the transmission model, but infused it with new vocabulary using 1) Marxism and 2) semiotics

Marxism: ‘Quick & Dirty’

Central tenets:• Under capitalism,

workers don’t own their labor – capitalists do.

• Capitalism will eventually destroy itself as workers become increasingly brutalized.

Basic characteristic is CLASS STRUGGLE: Working class vs ruling elite.

Capitalism =Struggle over the means of production

Economic production

Legal & political production

Cultural production

Material production

Intellectual production

A MARXIAN approach explores how the ruling class use operates to distribute power & privilege unevenly

Hegemony(from A. Gramsci)

The ideological rationale that supports the continued power of the ruling class – and which other classes buy into.

Stuart Hall used Marxian analysis & vocabulary (“dominance”, “hegemony”, “production”) to re-cast communication as a struggle for power…

over MEANING.

The goal of mass media producers (TV, newspaper, radio, film) is to exercise ‘hegemony’ over audiences:

To persuade them that the current political, economic & cultural order is good for everyone, and not just good for the ruling elite.

Second theoretical tradition:

SEMIOTICS

Study of symbols (linguistic, visual, aural, etc) and the ways they ‘stand in’ for reality & for other ideas.

“COW”

Semiotic analysis gets away from “effects” model:

“representations of violenceon the TV screen are not violence but messages about violence...

but we have continued to research the question of violence, for example, as if we were unable to comprehend this epistemological distinction.” (Hall, p. 166)

In between the “message” and its “effects” is a whole series of layers:- Prior experiences- Identity & subjectivity- Culture & ideology

E.g. INTERPRETATION.

“Denotative” meaning:Conventional meaning of the message.

“COW”

“Connative” meanings:Implied meaning of the message

“COW?”

Bringing Marxism & Semiotics together…

How you will “decode” a message depends on the extent to which you “buy in” to the dominant ideology underlying that message.

Three modes of “decoding”:• Dominant-hegemonic • Negotiated• Counter-hegemonic

Encoding & decoding in practice

www.youtube.com/watch?v=y1ZqQ55T25c

Dominant-hegemonic reading

Yaaaaah Viagra!!!!

The pharmaceutical industry is saving manhood!

Negotiated reading

It’s great that medical science can fix this issue, but that stuff messes you up.

Counterhegemonic reading

The pharmaceutical industry manufactured a medical “problem” so that they could sell lifestyle drugs to insecure dudes.

And what about women?

Dominant-hegemonic reading?

Negotiated reading?

Counterhegemonic reading?