INTRODUCTION
Introduction: Conveying meaning is much more than conveying information
In today’s society, news is an important window into the world, but it is not just a presentation of objective facts, but a complex process of constructing meaning. In news communication, the interaction between encoding and decoding shapes how audiences view events and understand issues.
Coding in news communication: how is meaning constructed?
(1) What is coding?
Encoding is a key aspect of news production, whereby news communicators (e.g. journalists and editors) organise and transmit information to their audiences in the form of symbols, language, images, etc.
These symbols are not neutral, but are processed through specific cultural contexts, ideologies and communication intentions.
(2) Tools and Strategies of Encoding
- Framing and Angle：Selective reporting: the media decides what news enters the public eye. For example, in an international conflict, some media choose to emphasise the military angle, while others highlight the humanitarian crisis.
- Linguistic coding：Headlines, wording and tone often convey underlying positions. For example, ‘Peaceful protesters rally’ versus ‘Violents storm the streets’ are two descriptions that shape completely different perceptions.
- Visual elements：Images, videos, and typographic styles further convey coding intent. For example, a photograph focusing on the victims may evoke sympathy from the viewer, whereas a photograph showing a destructive scene may emphasise the sense of threat.
(3) Power relations in encoding
For example, commercial media may tend to cater to the interests of advertisers, while non-profit media may be more concerned with social issues. Coding also reflects power structures, influencing which voices are amplified and which are ignored.
Decoding the Audience: Diverse Meaning Construction
What is decoding?
Decoding is the process of understanding, interpreting and re-assigning meaning to news content by the audience. It is not passive acceptance, but active construction of meaning.
Stuart Hall’s Theory of Decoding — According to Stuart Hall’s encoding/decoding model, there are three possible interpretive stances that audiences may take:
- Dominant-Hegemonic Position (DHP): the audience accepts the intention of the encoder in full agreement with the implicit meaning of the news.
- For example, in a news item describing a natural disaster, the audience may accept the call for ‘international assistance’ directly.
- Negotiated Position: The viewer partially agrees with the coder’s intent, but modifies it to take into account their own experience.
- For example, a viewer may agree with the importance of economic growth in a particular country, but question the neglect of environmental impacts in the news.
- Oppositional Position: The viewer rejects the coding intent and gives new meaning to the news.
- For example, reporting on the criminal behaviour of a particular group may be interpreted adversarially as ‘racial stereotyping’.
Factors affecting decoding
- Cultural context: In cross-cultural communication, the meaning of symbols may change.
- For example, ‘democratic values’ reported in Western media may be decoded as ‘Western hegemony’ in other cultures.
- Social experience: The social status and life experiences of the audience influence the way they are decoded.
- For example, working class people and business executives may interpret the same economic news very differently.
Encoding and Decoding Challenges in the Digital Age
- Algorithms and the information cocoon:
- News recommendation algorithms tend to push content that matches user preferences, limiting audience exposure to different encoding intentions.
- Impact: audiences are more likely to decode news from a dominant position rather than a questioning or negotiating position.
- News recommendation algorithms tend to push content that matches user preferences, limiting audience exposure to different encoding intentions.
- Social media recoding:
- The distribution of news on social media is often recoded by users, e.g. through emojis, comments or secondary creations that alter the original meaning.
- For example, a political news article may evolve into a playful modelling of a political figure on social media.
- The distribution of news on social media is often recoded by users, e.g. through emojis, comments or secondary creations that alter the original meaning.
Conclusion: Valuing encoding and decoding to understand the complexity of news communication
In contemporary society, the dissemination of news is a central process of meaning construction, and the theory of encoding and decoding provides a powerful tool for revealing the dynamics behind it. In an era of information overload and communication fragmentation, understanding this theory helps us to better engage in public discourse and make informed judgements.
Let’s start the next time we read the news by trying to analyse how it is encoded and interpret its content with a critical eye – every piece of news deserves to be decoded more deeply!
