Encoding and decoding in the television discourse. Level differentiated dominant code dominant definitions drama-entertainment Eco has recently elements ENCODING AND DECODING encoding/decoding moments film formal hegemonic definition hero iconic sign identify ideological. Encoding and decoding in the television discourse. By drawing on Stuart Hall's theory of encoding/decoding, the article presents a linked analysis of the encoding and decoding of `the people' at a heritage museum in South Wales. It discusses how this museum was set up, through particular relations of production and frameworks of knowledge, and shows how the heritage texts are the negotiated and hybrid outcome of the conflicts that shaped encoding.
This article is a reading of Stuart Hall's encoding/decoding model through his later, more mature work on articulation theory. It analyzes the underlying assumptions of the model, accounts for the criticisms made against it, and points out ways in which the theory of articulation is an advance over the earlier model. While the notion of articulation is emergent in the encoding/decoding model, it is not adequately theorized. One of the consequences is the problematic equivalence between the preferred meaning of the text and dominant ideology. Limitations such as these can be overcome through the present reading. By situating the model within the movements of Hall's intellectual history, the article furthers the task of recasting the model for the analysis of encoding and decoding practices.