Encoding, Decoding _ Stuart Hall

Encoding, Decoding

Things can be read in different ways and it is a construct of society and culture that defines the way information is coded and decoded. It is also important to realize that certain messages are coded in a way that makes it hard to miss the point, but also that these messages are intended to be read and understood in a specific manner and if they are not, you are operating outside the dominant or preferred code. The ideal for TV is perfectly transparent communication. This relates to the ecstasy of communication in that perfectly transparent communication is all over, and it makes it hard to distinguish between them when the messages are all the same and the codes and structures of them lead to the same result. There is no active position it; there is no personal objectivity. In that idealized world of communication there is no personal decoding no selective perception. Probably off topic but it makes me think of subliminal messages and the idea of receiving messages and information that are received without even realizing it; although this is outside of the social and cultural constructs that coding and decoding is discussed within the article.