Stuart Hall's Model- Decoding

Stuart Hall- The media deliver hegemonic representations of reality that serve powerful interests. Hall set up an 'Encoding/ Decoding' model as a theoretical attempt to understand hegemonic media processes in practice. He calls on semiotics to examine how media processes in practice. He calls on semiotics to examine how the media guide the ways we make sense of the world.


• The dominant code- this accepts the encoded meanings of media representations. Consumers adopt a 'preferred reading' of media representations as intended by producers. Therefore the ruling ideology filters down into the public conscience without challenge.
• The negotiated code- this accepts some aspects of encoded representations but not others. On a general level, the encoded meanings may be endorses by audience but on a more local level these meanings may be dismissed as individuals considers themselves exceptions to the general rule.
• The oppositional code- rejects the encodings of media producers. Audiences decode media representations in a way that was not intended or foreseen at the phase of production.

In the end, the DOMINANT CODE will prevail most of the time.