How is Stuart Hall’s “encoding/decoding” model an advance on the traditional “transmission” model of communication? How does it change conventional views of how media products are consumed?
As a transmission theory scholar studying in mass-communication research, Hall put forward “encoding and decoding “model which brings big effects and shocks the traditional transmission model. The traditional model divides the message sending into three parts, sender- message- receiver. It is called linearity feature. The message is transmitted in a certain way. However, Hall has a different idea about this. He divided it into five parts. The basic view of Hall’s encoding and decoding communication model is that the media device pays more attention to …show more content…

Hall used Barthes’s semiology and structuralism to explain and analyze encoding and decoding theory in the mass-communication. Because of the semiology, information can be encoded and be transformed to the audiences. As Hall (1999) mentioned that without encoding into the code form, a “raw” historical event cannot be conveyed (ibid, 1999). For example, language can be seen as a typical form of code. In the preliminary case of communication between people and people, message sender conveys his meaning by using various means of expression. He can also use facial expression or body actions. The language, facial expression and body actions are all encoded by the sender. In the case of information transmission between media and audiences, take news broadcast for example. News broadcast in China has its independent role, especially in the area of politics. Before an affair is broadcasted, it must be “processed” by the media agency or supervision organization. Similarly, at the beginning of the Iraq War, news which published on American media products such as newspaper or magazines are mostly about America’s standpoint in this war. The media sender encodes the event and transmits to the audience. Maybe in most situations, the facts are not the ones we know. Thus, semiology can be used to explain the encode