Textual Analysis

Stuart Hall's Encoding/Decoding Model

All media products are 'texts'. When you read, watch,

play, listen to a media text, you make meaning of the
sounds and imagery presented. This process of making
meaning or understanding the media text is called
DECODING.
DECODING = understanding a media text.
CODES can be visual (you can see them) or aural (you
can hear them). Codes have symbolic value. For
example in our society wearing a pair of glasses (glasses
are the code) symbolises, or connotates, that you are
clever. TV drama, magazines and videogames use these
symbolic codes to generate character types and
character archetypes.

What visual codes are at work?

What connotations do the
visual codes have?

What visual codes are in

this picture from GTA4?
How is the male character
(Nico) represented?

How is the female character (Ch

represented?
Does the representation of
both characters tell us
anything about the
AUDIENCE for GTA4?

What visual codes are in

this picture from the Lara Croft movie and videogame?
Do the codes reinforce a stereotypical portrayal of women in the media?

What codes are at work on these front covers?

These codes work together and establish the CONVENTIONS of lads
magazines; the conventions are repeated in each issue; conventions link to
audience expectations - the readers of Loaded and Nuts are well aware of the
conventions of the mag - it's the reason they buy it! Conventions link closely to
genre. The audience for example know the conventions of a Rom Com movie,
a first-person shoot em' up, a driving game etc.

Stuart Hall's ENCODING/DECODING model

According to Stuart hall there are 3 ways to DECODE

a media text:
1) Preferred or Dominant Reading = the way the
producer of a text intended the text to be
understood.
2) Oppositional Reading = where the preferred or
dominant meaning is recognised but rejected for
cultural or political reasons.
3) Negotiated Reading = where the reader agress with
elements of the text, but not all.
Look back at the Loaded and Nuts covers; which
reading do you take?

IDEOLOGY
Stuart Hall's model is interesting because it is personal.
It is about how you respond to the media text(s). Your
response is based on your personal beliefs, culture and
outlook. Another word for beliefs and values is
IDEOLOGY.
IDEOLOGY = a set of beliefs that are held by a person
and by society as a whole. For example in England we
live in a capitalist society; the ideology of a capitalist
society is that money is king and our happiness is based
on the things we have and the money we make.
Again you can take a preferred, oppositional or
negotiated stance on Capitalism.

IDEOLOGY and ideological constructions are within

every media text. The ideology may be explicit (obvious)
or implicit (not obvious);
It is your job as media students to question the ideology
that is inherent within a media text.
Look back on all of the media texts in this presentation.
What IDEOLOGY is explicitly or implicitly presented in
the media texts?