Stuart Hall's Personal Works

Hall's major works are: Coding and Decoding in TV Discourse (1973) and Cultural Studies: Two Paradigms (1980). The rediscovery of "ideology": the return of the oppressed in media studies (1982), ideology and communication theory (1989), cultural identity and ethnic diaspora, the effects of culture, media and ideology, and the structure of "the masses" 1980 published a monograph "Media, Culture and"

Coding/decoding theory of spreading ideas

Hall is obviously biased towards semiotics, structuralism and Gramsci's hegemonic theory in theory. Although Hall put forward the theory of coding and decoding of TV discourse, this model can be applied to the analysis of any discourse production.

(1) Hall believes that TV discourse, like commodities, has to go through four stages described by Marxism: production, circulation, use and reproduction. The production link of TV discourse is the coding of information. Hall believes that any kind of communication is not natural, and we must reconstruct it before sending information. However, the construction of information is explanatory and social, which is inevitably influenced by a series of factors, including both perceptible factors, such as institutional structure, broadcasting mode and network, and hidden factors, such as practitioners' own technology, professional ethics, professional concepts, knowledge structure, and even daily operational processes and historical boundaries. Therefore, just like commodities, in the process of coding, coders must produce symbols in the form of meaningful words.

(2) Hall explained the relationship between symbols and codes with the help of Saussure in semiotics. Saussure pointed out that language is a symbol system composed of signifier and signified. However, the relationship between signifier and signified is arbitrary, which means that there is no necessary connection between the symbols and sounds of words and the objects they refer to, except by convention. One of the results of this proposition is that meaning is unstable and depends on the construction in discourse form. In addition, Hall also absorbed roland barthes's linguistic thought, that is, meaning has two levels: condemnation and extension, which refer to common sense and implication respectively. Therefore, all levels of signifiers have close communication with culture, knowledge and history, and people live in a system of language and semantics.

(3) After the information coding is completed, it begins to enter the circulation link, that is, the process of information passing from the coder to the audience.

It is worth noting that the fourth link of information circulation, reproduction, is basically carried out at the same time as the third link. Hall believes that once the coded information is transmitted, the coder loses control of it. According to Saussure and Barthes' theory, the meaning of coded information will only stay at the level of language symbols, and the audience will interpret the information according to their own semantic environment, that is, the decoding may be ambiguous. Of course, TV and other communication information have their mainstream interpretation mode, but this is not contradictory to Hall's theory. Hall explained that there are deeper social, cultural and historical reasons for the interpretation of coded information. The ambiguity of interpretation is caused by the inappropriateness of symbols and the difference and asymmetry of the relationship and status between the communicator and the audience. Meaning is both open and limited. The meaning of a text cannot be completely determined by cultural codes, but to a great extent, it is also influenced by social dominant discourse.

⑤ Some symbols are widely distributed in specific language groups and cultures, and people have long been used to it. It seems that they are not constructed, but naturally occur. For example, simple visual symbols seem to have "approximate universality", although there is evidence that even the most obvious "natural" symbols have their own specific culture.

⑥ The audience's interpretation methods may include preference interpretation, negotiation interpretation and confrontation interpretation. Hall pointed out that these three modes are definitely not separated, they are interrelated, just like the sliding cursor scale on a ruler.

Academic innovation of decoding and coding theory

The biggest revelation-restoring the original position of the audience In the study of communication, the relationship between the communicator and the audience is equal.

① From the research model of American positivism school, whether it is quantitative analysis, stimulus-response model or use-satisfaction model, the audience is regarded as passive; The information transmission process is regarded as a linear transmission mode. Hall believes that every link from the composition of information to the reading and understanding of information is determined by multiple factors. Information coding may be influenced by professional standards, industry mechanisms and rules, technical equipment, personal concepts, etc. In the process of decoding, the audience depends on culture, political inclination and their broader power framework.

(2) Single-wave critical communication bid farewell to the single subject in the sense of opposition between subject and object and turned to' intersubjectivity'. One is to insist on the differences and diversity among subjects, and the other is to emphasize communication.

Thirdly, the symbolic analysis method and the concept of ideology are reasonably introduced into the study of communication. Hall pointed out the power of words. In the coding and decoding mode, media text is regarded as an important link in analyzing the relationship between culture and broader social and political structure.

Hall reminded researchers that the purpose of research is not only to understand how TV news is produced, but more importantly, to understand how the meaning of the audience is constructed and to investigate how this information is decoded.

At the same time, Hall's theory tries to reveal the social structure and process that leads to ideological hegemony, so that people can think critically about their own situation and liberate themselves from unnecessary traditional bondage, ideology and power relations.