Running head: ROLE OF MEDIA WITHIN THE PARADIGM OF HALL AND MORLEY’S THEORY

MEDIA AND AUDIO THEORIES

ROLE OF MEDIA WITHIN THE PARADIGM OF HALL AND

MORLEY’S THEORY
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ROLE OF MEDIA WITHIN THE PARADIGM OF HALL AND MORLEY’S THEORY

Table of Contents
Introduction and rationale..........................................................................................................3

Discussion of the chosen theory.................................................................................................3

Justification of worthiness..........................................................................................................4

The role of media within the theoretical paradigm....................................................................5

Critical discussions.....................................................................................................................8

Conclusion..................................................................................................................................9

References................................................................................................................................10
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Introduction and rationale

Audience theory emerges as a kernel of thought within the premises of cultural
studies and literary theory. The elementary assumption of this somewhat sub-discipline that
the media, which the audience (or viewer or both) is exposed in uses the tools (such as text,
image etc) in such a manner that it constructs certain types of ‘audience-ship’. If the previous
statement is considered true, then it can be said that the sub-discipline is also an integral
exponent of media and communication studies respectively. Other theoretical perspectives,
such as one by Ede and Lunsford, attempted to merge diverse approaches to audiences in
order to propose how media products tend to imagine a ‘fictionalized audience’.

In this context, this account empirically wishes to critically comment on one audience theory
and to explore how the role of the media can be perceived within that theoretical paradigm.
The theory (or model) that this account aspires to comment on is the encoding/decoding
model propounded by David Morley and Stuart Hall respectively. Since one of the crucial
propositions of this model is to imagine audiences as ‘active consumers’ instead of ‘passive
recipients’, the primary aim of this account will be to show how media facilitates the
construction of active consumers.

Discussion of the chosen theory

Cultural studies scholar Stuart Hall in 1973 developed the Encoding/Decoding model
of communication. The “Encoding and Decoding in the Television Discourse” provides a
theoretical approach regarding how media messages are perceived. Shaw (2017) have stated
that Encoding/Decoding is an active audience theory that has evaluated the relationship
between the text and the audience. The definition of encoding suggests it to be a process of
constructing the text by the producers. Decoding, on the other hand, is the process by which
the audience reads, interprets, and understands a text. Hall considers a text to be polysemic
and it indicates that one text can be interpreted differently by different people and the
interpretation depends on their identity, opinions, and cultural knowledge. Encoding refers to
the means that the makers of media code content use for giving a product a meaning and it
can be done through narrative, images, or graphics.

Hall proposed a four-stage communication model through which the linearity of

communication can be questioned. The stages in the communication model are production,
circulation, use, and reproduction. Production is the first stage of encoding and in this stage,
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the encoding of the message takes place. According to Goggin (2016) the production by
media draws upon the dominant ideologies of the society and the creator tends to feed off the
beliefs and values of the society. Circulation is the subtle manner of spreading the message
for influencing the audience to receive the message and use it. Use or consumption is the
stage when receptors or the audience becomes active and decodes or interprets the message.
The last stage is reproduction in which the audience members react in a certain way or
reproduce the message based on their interpretation that is already influenced by the
experiences and the beliefs.

David Morley later in his reading of television audience connected the hypotheses that were
gathered by Hall to discuss the encoding/decoding model of the news program. Morley
identified certain people who belong to the audience to have shifting social foundations and
Morley concluded that different economic classes present the meaning of the text differently.
The presentation of the discourses depends on the knowledge, resistance, and prejudice of the
reader. The discourses that are at the disposal of the audience tend to influence the potential
of reading by the parameters of social position.

The importance of the theory lies in the fact that using this theory it can be understood a
message is appropriated at various stages of communication. At the time of production,
technical needs influence how the message would be appropriated. The socio-economic and
language power relation tends to appropriate the message at the stage of circulation.Even the
socio-economic and political background of the audience influence decoding of the message.
According to Nansen, Kohn, Arnold, van Ryn & Gibbs (2017) a “message form” is used for
transmitting the message in a presentable shape that ensures before consumption of the
message, the message is already been appropriated as a meaningful discourse.

Justification of worthiness
The encoding/decoding Audience theory is vital to understand the active role of the
audience in interpreting a message that is circulated by media. Despite the theory has been
applied by Morley in the context of television news, it can be applicable for understanding
the internal and external influences of audiences in shaping their interpretation of any
message. Hall suggested that rather than the audience, the “power relation” in a
“determinate” moment encodes a message and another “determinate” moment brings the
decoding to social practice. The discursive production, circulation, and consumption of the
message increase the possibility of distortions. For understanding, the position of the
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audience in interpreting messages circulated by media Hall’s three positions of audiences can
be effective. Hall suggested that the audience could interpret a message from the dominant,
negotiated, or oppositional position. The main reason for selecting the theory for discussion is
the fundamental of reception and influences changing actual coded message consciously and
subconsciously by the audience that can be understood by this theory. It provides a broader
spectrum for understanding current media play a vital role in the reproduction of society.
Meghji (2019) have identified that media culture has the potential of cultivating behaviours
as well as attitudes that influence individuals. The Encoding/Decoding model is also
important for analyzing how a mass media message is interpreted by the audience. The
emphasis on evaluation of the discursive message of any media text is vital for understanding
how audiences’ behaviours are shaped in contemporary society.

Hall’s Indoctrination/Decoding Theory, on the one hand, empowers the audience because of
their ability to interpret a message differently than its original connotation. On the other hand,
it also represents the fundamental stage of conceptualizing the televisual communication and
recognizes the ability of the creator to intentionally generate “ambiguity” within the
embedded message. In audience research, this particular model plays an important role and it
can help in understanding how a message can be communicated effectively for the desired
outcome. The model has significantly combined semiological insights and bridged the gap
between media production, distribution, and consumption. The question regarding access to
power is of paramount importance in the audience research and it can be examined within the
Hall’s framework of encoding and decoding. The difference between the producer’s and the
consumer’s code is another important element that is relevant to be contemporary audience
research. However, the model has emphasized the rational dimension of response. This
theoretical framework can help in understanding the politics of reception analysis. The
framework is also vital for understanding how mass media message is being appropriated at
different levels.

The role of media within the theoretical paradigm

It is evident from the illustrations of the theory (or theories) that it is not true that
encoding/decoding model is not a product of collaborative endeavour of Hall and Morley.
The original fact is that Morley’s practical research (along with Charlotte Brunsdon)
regarding the categories of reception theory suggested by Hall seems to corroborate the
speculations that Hall made. Morley and Brundson conducted the media-audience researches
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under the patronage of Centre of Contemporary Cultural Studies of the University at

Birmingham (UK) within the span of 1970 to 1980, which is later popularized as The
Nationwide Project (Conway, 2017). Before embarking on their outcomes, this study
proposes to look at how media’s role is perceived in the imagination of Stuart Hall’s audience
theory.

From the previous broad discussions, it is evident that Hall proposes three categories of
receptions that the audiences usually oscillate within. Oppositional reception, as Hall refers
to it, manifests complete disagreement of the audience with what the media product tend to
convey. In context of this type of reception, the role of media is dependent upon the purpose
it was serving. For instance, considering the cognitive bias inherent in the audience, the
media might tend to use this somewhat spontaneous disagreement against something, which
is inherently evil. In practical, after the proliferation of Television (TV) across the globe, this
device has not only been use to promote mass communication but also to prepare the ‘civil
society’ to conform to certain political interests. However, since in modern democracy (at
least in rhetoric on which audience theory offers great emphasis), it is impossible to force the
audience to conform to certain ideologies, media operating within the premises of those
vested political interests, tends to use a prevalent, spontaneous reaction to transform the
implied audience into an active endorser of that ideology (Abdullah, Wahyono & Persadha,
2019). This aspect is undertaken by Noam Chomsky when he aimed at dissecting the role of
mass media in his somewhat titanic concept of ‘Manufacturing Consent’. However, it will be
a travesty of truth if it is claimed that only TV is capable of doing this and other media is
comparatively sacred. If we look at the heyday of motion pictures, we will found that D.W.
Griffith, one of the pioneers of modern cinema, is commissioned to construct the frames of
his cine-epic The Birth of a Nation (1915) in such a way that it can ‘perpetuate racial
stereotypes’ (against the black) while ‘glorifying Ku Klax Klan’, the white supremacist group
reigning in contemporary America. Nevertheless, media, which propagate creative
expressions, can also use this disagreement consistently, usually using an oppositional syntax
over and over again to push the envelope of tolerance of the implied audience.

The second category that Hall is proposing is Negotiated reception, whose elaborate
discussion is not possible, as it is evident from the overview, without knowing what Hall
means by dominant reception. In this regard, before entering into the role that might play
within these modes of reception, it is imperative to extract the postulates of Hall’s
understanding of encoding and decoding respectively. In the famous essay “Encoding and
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Decoding in the Television Discourse”, which Hall wrote in 1973, one of the major
suggestions that Hall proposes is associated with the manner of encoding a message that,
according to him, is a teleological concern i.e. dependent upon the ‘purpose of the message’.
Moreover, since every message is assumed to be conveyed for the consumption of the
audiences, Hall proposes that it is an imperative for every message to inherit a meaning. In
case of TV discourse, it has been seen the term ‘inherit’ bear additional significance since
most of the messages circulated across TV prefers to choose a format, which has traces of
pre-signification in it (Schrøder, 2019). From most naive perceptions, these traces of pre-
signification are somewhat imperative to incorporate in order to ensure effective
communication of the message. This idea can be derived from the famous quote of Hall,
which reads, “The event must become a ‘story’ before it can become a communicative event”.
These are discussed here in such a manner in order to offer the fundamental premise
regarding the ideal roles that media can play within this discourse. Before moving towards
the remaining two modes of reception, it is important for the current study to assess the
contributions of David Morley here since it will engender important ideas about the
determinants of such mode of reception. The outcomes of Morley’s research offer a succinct
description of how surroundings, occupation, social and cultural background of the implied
audience govern the mode of reception. Though Morley empirically categorizes those as
‘social factors’, it is later confirmed (discussed in detail later) that the act of decoding varies
across diverse audiences, which is not always dependent on those factors.

Thus, given that decoding do not emerge as an inevitable following of the encoding act,
dominant reception, which is better known as ‘hegemonic reception’, is a hypothetical
position (can and has materialized) where the implied audience will agree with the conveyed
message without any scepticism. Morley, deriving insights from the operations of social
factors, suggests that an ideal exhibition of hegemonic reception is brought forth by
management groups. From staunch receptive perspective, dominant reception means that the
message is decoded just following the way it was intended to. The famous examples that Hall
sheds light on is of the ‘hegemonic interpretations’ behind the rise of the military and
political elite of Northern Ireland or the Chilean Coup (Granelli & Zenor, 2016). These
examples are also useful in terms of corroborating the additional attention that the scholars of
media and communication studies invest in political rhetoric. In other words, the role of
media here is to ensure the decryption of a ‘connotative meaning’ through the assemblage of
text and images (or other tools) in such a way that it do not encourage any misunderstanding
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in the communication between the sender and the receiver respectively. In most of the cases,
it has been seen that the possibility of a successful dominant reception to happen when the
cultural biases of the sender is identical to that of the receiver’s. In this regard, the example of
political propaganda is the most apt in this phase.

In a popular web series titled Breaking Bad (2008 – 2013), Skylar (played by Anna Gunn),
wife of the protagonist Walter White (played by Bryan Cranston) leaves his husband
immediately after the discovery that he is a methamphetamine cook. This instance, according
to my knowledge, is the most simplest to identify the role of media within the context of
negotiated reception. Both Hall and Morley conceived this mode, as discussed earlier, in a
way where the implied audience partially agree with what the message is trying to convey.
Morley, relying on his research results, suggests that this mode of reception is typical for the
teachers or students of higher education since they developed a habit of scepticism and by the
virtue (or vice?) of which find it impossible to agree with any message totally (Laing, 2018).
This particular event of the web series is susceptible to simultaneously agree or disagree with
Skylar’s position since, despite considering the sins of Walter, it is not expected (at least
traditionally) from a wife to leave her husband at any cost.

In summary, the role of media within the paradigm proposed by Hall and Morley works to
propagate a certain kind of ideology, which shares dissonance with the notion of Ideological
State Apparatus (ISA) propounded by Louis Althusser. It is also evident, despite considering
all the factors that Morley or Hall emphasizes, that no definite or absolute decoding from the
audience cannot be confirmed. Nevertheless, the attempt of the media to make the audiences
consume particular ideologies is always on play in terms of defining the role of media here.

Critical discussions
Before embarking on the corresponding critical discourse of the theoretical
propositions of Hall and the results of the Nationwide Project (integral to Morley’s reception
theory), it is important to summarise the main findings of both of them. In essence, the
audience theory that Hall proposes is based upon the fact that audiences tend to decode an
encoded message from the perspective that this decoding is governed by the socio-cultural
background or upbringing of the recipient. However, later projects conducted on the same
concern shows that this is not an absolute truth. Empirically, a set of audience from similar
socioeconomic status and socio-cultural background has been chosen to face a same encoded
message. They tend to disseminate different meanings, which render Morley’s dictum not
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absolutely true. More definite ideas about these determinants of decoding can be found in the
analysis of the renowned media critic Sujeong Kim. Kim, who reanalyse the findings of
Morley and suggests that the socioeconomic status only partially shape the understanding of
the recipients regarding the nature of the message and, in some cases, usher towards
consistent patterns of reception, which happens in Morley’s case. In other words, against the
socioeconomic status, Kim imported something broader within the paradigm i.e. class
discourse. The central contribution of Kim’s re-analysis of Morley’s result in media studies is
that it partially refutes Hall’s hypothesis that audience exercise an agency while deciphering
the meaning of a particular media product as something universal. Scholars later corroborated
the fact that Hall arrived at this hypothesis only to consolidate his notion of ‘active
consumption’. For instance, the element definiteness comes in Kim’s analysis when he
suggests that middle class audience is more inclined towards ‘negotiated reception’ whereas
the working class is more inclined towards either dominant or oppositional readings
(Woodstock, 2016). It is evident from the discussions up to now that, in case of both
dominant and oppositional reception, what is different from negotiated reception is the
prominent presence of ‘agency’ or ‘reflective agency’, which corroborates the aspect of
‘passive reception’. The writers of famous Tel Quel group (1960 – 1982) such as Jean Louis
Comolli, Jean Narboni etc, who was heavily influenced by Althusser’s critique of apparatus
(which for them was mainly camera since they are primarily film critics), suggest an
difference between ‘viewer’ and ‘spectator’ where active reception or consumption will only
be possible for the latter. Thus, the exercise of agency that Hall refers will only be possible
for those who are capable of developing a negotiated meaning.

Conclusion
In the light of the above study, it is evident both Stuart Hall and David Morley
confirms that the message conveyed by media products is disseminated by the audiences
following a encoding/decoding model. Moreover, they offered three distinct modes of
reception, which, according to them, is determined by the socioeconomic status and cultural
background of the recipients. Criticism of their understandings partially refute audience’s
agency in dissemination, which is only applicable for those who is capable of exercising
negotiated mode of reception. Further studies can follow the impact of gender, race and other
super-structural constituents (according to Marxist understandings) in determining the mode
of reception respectively.
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References
Abdullah, I., Wahyono, S. B., & Persadha, P. D. (2019). AUDIENCE CULTURE IN THE
RECEPTION OF TEXT: BLACK CAMPAIGNS ON ONLINE MEDIA DURING
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Conway, K. (2017). Encoding/decoding as translation. International Journal of
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Goggin, G. (2016). Media and power after Stuart Hall. Cultural Studies Review, 22(1), 277-
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Granelli, S., & Zenor, J. (2016). Decoding “The Code”: Reception theory and moral
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