The saying “There are a thousand Hamlets in the eyes of a thousand people” has long been known to most people. It emphasizes that each individual individual can produce different understandings of things. In today’s age of digital media, I think this idea is very similar to “ideas of encoding and decoding” and it reveals the uncertainty that exists in the transmission of information.
The encoding of information is created and transmitted by the information producer through his or her own thoughts and cognition. Just like the story of Hamlet, the same story will be edited through different languages, symbols, images and other forms to form different results and finally spread. This is a huge challenge because writers need to take into account the diversity of their audience, as each person is a unique individual with different cultural backgrounds, upbringings, and ideas. Therefore, the same message may be interpreted to have completely different meanings by different people. This is just like when a thousand people look at Hamlet, they will have a thousand different understandings. Receiving information is a very subjective process. When understanding the information, the receiver not only passively accepts it, but also thinks and understands it based on his or her own different backgrounds.
For example, in the context of the COVID-19 epidemic, China and the United States have shown obvious differences in their perspectives on information. China emphasizes centralized information transmission, single-handedly through the government, and under strong control, forming a consistent message and emphasizing unity and epidemic prevention measures. But this also leads to the singularity of information.
The United States is completely different. They focus on diversity of information. Coding is more open and thus reflects a very diverse range of perspectives. However, this can also lead to fragmentation of information that leads to ongoing controversy, as different people interpret the information very differently based on their personal perspectives.
This difference emphasizes the importance of encoding and decoding in the transmission of information. While pursuing information freedom, it is necessary to balance the appropriate guidance of information to ensure that the public can obtain comprehensive and accurate information.
