When Clint Eastwoods 2015 war drama American Sniper was released,

everyone seemed to agree that the film was making a potent statement on
modern warfare- although no one seemed to agree on exactly what that
statement was. Some audience members received the film as a heroic
celebration of patriotism, aligned with traditional cinematic depictions of
soldiers as ideal representations of what it means to be moral, righteous, and
selfless. Others felt Eastwood meant to depict the extreme psychological
damage of servicemen, the futility of the purpose they serve, and the
systemic shortcomings of rehabilitation after war. The divisive reaction to the
film is not wholly a result of the films production; the jarring, emotional
content and presentation of the film make it far from unbiased. An objective
take on the movies political stance would acknowledge that it presents both
conservative and liberal ideals, but the viewer is tasked with determining
which elements are most important with shaping the overarching takeaway
from the movie. American Sniper is a good illustration of the
Encoding/Decoding model, giving weight to both the content creator and
audience in understanding the meaning of a product.
As Croteau and Hoynes Media/Society points out, the term audience is
problematic in that it evokes images of passive reception. While content
creators have a meaning in mind during production and distribution, that
meaning is not simply absorbed by the receiver and internalized. Conversely,
the audience is not autonomous to interpret meaning with complete
disregard to the constructors message. Stuart Hall addressed the power
struggle in meaning construction with his Encoding/Decoding Model, in
which encoding and decoding are connected because they are processes
that focus on the same media text, but a particular decoding does not follow
from a specific encoding meaning (Croteau/Hoynes, 270). Hall has
articulated the circuitous behavior of the model, identifying no beginning or
end to meaning construction, but a reciprocal, constantly active process.
David Morely built upon the model, stating that audiences can read the
preferred meaning, a negotiated meaning, or an oppositional meaning when
interpreting the message of media products.
Its important to grasp that the encode/decode theory does not give equal
power to both parties; in the creator/consumer dichotomy, the creator holds
more power in meaning creation. Bill Yousmans Revisiting Halls
Encoding/Decoding Model anecdotally demonstrates this through
conversations with ex-inmates on their perception of how grounded TV
depictions of prison are. Many interviewees contradict their expressed prison
experiences when evaluating the prison show Oz, either dramatizing what
they had seen or adopting a negotiated understanding that the behavior
definitely exists in other prison institutions. Yousman describes how exinmates blur real-life experiences with what they had seen on TV, often
demonstrating sincere emotional engagement with characters as if they
were real. This deeply inundated attachment to characters isnt a trait

unique to ex-convicts, but applicable to the general consuming population.

The emotional engagement could be viewed as one of the influences in what
shapes how we deconstruct meaning and integrate said meaning into
common sense understanding.
Engaging with the audience is a demonstration of effective storytelling; the
tricky part therein would be when audiences unknowingly remove the
medium from the equation and use characterization as justification for what
drives his or her beliefs. At what point do we become so engrossed in media
culture that we can no longer distinguish between media-constructed reality
and truths set forth by real life example? What are the larger implications of
this type of consumption in impacting our perception of subcultural groups,
important political discourse, or a collective code of ethics?
Croteau and Hoynes evoke the image of audiences as semiological
guerrillas when resisting predominant messages of media texts, and convey
how grappling with content can be a form of political struggle on the level of
the individual. Darnell Hunt concluded that viewer opposition to the
assumptions embedded in the news can be seen either as constitution
meaningful acts of resistance in their own right, or contributing to a
consciousness necessary for meaningful social action at some later point in
time. (Croteau/Hoynes, 283). Perhaps the most constructive way of viewing
would be to adopt the title of semiological guerrilla, but working towards
negotiating meaning with the content creator. As the circuitous layout of the
Encoding/Decoding Model suggests, an audience who is resistant to certain
messages will influence the bias of the media to come. By continually
demanding news and entertainment reflective of ones reality and inciting
conversation amongst fellow consumers, one can demonstrate the power
that can be harnessed by being an active audience.
Works Cited
Croteau, David, and William Hoynes. Media Society: Industries, Images, and
Audiences. Thousand Oaks, CA: Pine Forge, 2003. Print.
Yousman, Bill. "Revisiting Hall's Encoding/Decoding Model: Ex-Prisoners
Respond to Television Representations of Incarceration." Review of
Education, Pedagogy, and Cultural Studies 35.3 (2013): 197-216. Web.