Active vs. Passive theory/Encoding and Decoding

Active vs. Passive theory

The active audience theory reasons that media audiences do not passively receive information but are actively involved in the process usually without realising as they make sense of the messages that the media may provide them with due to their personal and social contexts, what they use the media for. Decoding’s of media messages can be influenced by certain things for example: your beliefs, values, culture, education, interests, experiences and often family backgrounds. This theory conveys that the producer/encoder of the text does not control the decoding of the text but the audience do.                              

*An example of this theory may be; Another family member goes out, purchases a magazines and once they have read it leaves it out on the kitchen table this now causes you to read this magazine, therefore you will be receiving information from this magazine yet are unconsciously making sense of the messages but within the personal/social context that you are situated within.

 

The active vs. passive theory is also compatible with the Encoding/Decoding model of communication theory.                                                                                                             

Encoding-The encoding of a message is the production of the message.                    

Decoding- How audience member interpret messages give due to their own experiences/personal contexts.

This theory was developed by Stuart Hall in 1973. His theory focuses upon how media messages are produced, disseminated, and interpreted. He states that all aspects of the media are presented with different messages which will have different meanings for different people due to their background, personal context and also economic standing. He believes that the media provides messages that are decoded and interpreted by its audience, Hall also empowered media audiences and stated evidently that media users play an active role in decoding and interpreting these messages due to the fact that their decoding relies on their own personal contexts therefore they have the power to change these messages themselves through physiological actions.

 

Here are the three positions that Hall believes decoding can assume:

Dominant/hegemonic position- *this suggests that the media understands and decodes the message the way that it was originally encoded. Therefore the consumer realises the intended meaning and is in a dominant position above other consumers as both the sender and receiver have the same cultural biases

Negotiated position-* the consumer here is in a negotiated position because they accept and reject different elements. The consumer recognises the dominant message intended but fails to completely accept the encoded message given as they concurrently resist and amend these messages to their own personal context and interests.

Oppositional position-*the consumer is in an oppositional position due to the fact that they that do understand the intended meaning however people have different backgrounds therefore they each decode/interpret messages their own way as a result of this the consumer due to their social situation has placed themselves in an oppositional position as they are not sharing the dominant/texts codes but rejecting them.

Moreover Hall also has four-stage models of communication, this focuses upon how the sender of information cannot be certain whether his intended messages will be perceived by users in the original way that he would have liked because of the chain of discourse which is how the message/product is affected along the way. These four stages are how they can become affected:

Production-* this is when the encoding of the message is taken place, the producer here has based their message/product on the beliefs, values and ethics that society maintains.

Circulation-* this is how the audience perceive things, it is how they are shown it visually against the literal intended meaning. It suggests that the circulation of things influence how the audience in the end receive this message as and how they put it to use.

Use (distribution or consumption)-* this is the decoding/interpreting that the audience actively partake in.

Reproduction-* this is after the message/product has been interpreted by the audience members based upon their contexts/experiences in life and whether or not they take action upon this message are consuming it in their own particular way and what they do with it.