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COM 327 January 17, 2013 Encoding / Decoding Quiz Unit overview Stuart Hall & cultural studies Group work: Close reading Encoding/decoding in practice. Quiz!. Question 1: ‘Encoding’ refers to the activities of media producers. ‘Decoding’ refers to the activities of media _________.
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COM 327 January 17, 2013 Encoding / Decoding Quiz Unit overview Stuart Hall & cultural studies Group work: Close reading Encoding/decoding in practice
Question 1: ‘Encoding’ refers to the activities of media producers. ‘Decoding’ refers to the activities of media _________. Educators Consumers Dupes 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) cow b) bacon c) symbol d) Communism
Question 3: Hall distinguishes between the denotative and _________ meanings of symbols. Connotative Hyperactive False Productive
Question 4: • The three positions, or modes, of ‘decoding’ in Hall’s model are: • Happy, Angry & Bored • Aggressive, Passive & Passive-aggressive • Dominant-hegemonic, Negotiated & Counter-hegemonic • 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 tocomprehend 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 & Representation • Primary 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 Hall Did 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
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 violence on 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… • Three modes of “decoding”: • Dominant-hegemonic • Negotiated • Counter-hegemonic How you will “decode” a message depends on the extent to which you “buy in” to the dominant ideology underlying that message.
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?
