Stuart HallEncoding/Decoding

• In ‘Encoding/Decoding’, Hall argues that there are two processes which result in media communication• 1- Media producers making the text• 2- Audiences read and make sense of those texts

• However, this is not to overstate the power of either the producers or the audience, because these are bound my pre-existing conventions in making and interpreting the text• Production exists within a particular context and the ‘reading’ exists in a

particular context

Three ways the receiver can decode a message

1. Dominant-hegemonic position: Reproduce hegemonic messages which are interpreted as they wished to be interpreted

2. Negotiated code: Audiences are aware of the intended, dominant meaning of the text. However, they respond differently, or place it within a different context

3. Oppositional code: Takes the message and ‘flips it on its head’ in order to decontextualize it within an oppositional framework

Edward S. HermanThe Propaganda Model

The political-economic filters of mass media messages1. Size and ownership of the mass media

2. The advertising license to do business

3. Sourcing mass media news

4. The flak and the enforcers

5. Anticommunism as a control mechanism

1.

Size and ownership of mass media:

Canadian example

2. The

advertising license to do

business Due to the large amounts of money invested by corporations to TV and movies,

the advertisement companies gain power and an amount of control over the platform through which they are selling.

3. Sourcing

mass media news

Source?For example:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Rnq1NpHdmw&t=58s

OR search Scientific Studies: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO) on YouTube

4. The flak and the enforcer

5. Anticommunism

and a control mechanism

“Anti-Communism as a control mechanism is Herman’s fifth, and final, filter. When analyzing contemporary media, the fear is no longer communism but terrorism, political Islam and difference in general.

2004’s documentary “Outfoxed” explores this idea. Fox News has used fear techniques on subjects such as terrorism, sexual difference, race and religion. Larry Johnson, a former Fox News contributor said in relation to the news station, “the motivator is fear. The payoff is we’re going to go and kill the bad guys. It’s a very simple black and white world they portray” (Larry Johnson, 2004, Outfoxed).

According to Herman, the reason for the continuous threat of fear is for manipulation of the public. By keeping the public afraid, they can be controlled. The continuous terrorism threat will cause the public to put faith in the government for protection and safety. As a result, the people in governmental power appear heroic as they protected the public from terrorism, even when terrorism may not have even been a threat.” (Whelan, 2013)