Decoding (semiotics)
Decoding, in semiotics, is the process of interpreting a message sent by an addresser to an addressee. The complementary processcreating a message for transmission to an addresseeis called encoding.
Overview
All communication depends on the use of codes. More traditional communication models always include three main elements: a sender, a transmitter, and a receiver. The sender is responsible for “encoding” their message and putting it through a transmitter . When the encoded information, put through the transmitter, gets to the receiver, it is the responsibility of the receiver to “decode” and respond accordingly with feedback.The communication process cannot work without all its three major parts: the sender/encoder, the transmitter/medium, and the receiver/decoder. If there is no sender/encoder, then nobody crafts the beginning message to send out. If there is no medium/transmitter to put the message through, then the message cannot be delivered to the receiver. If there is no receiver/decoder then a message can’t be decoded and hold any value whatsoever. When there is no value to a message the decoder cannot make meaning out of it.
When the message is received, the addressee is not passive, but decoding is more than simply recognizing the content of the message. Over time, each individual in the audience develops a cognitive framework of codes that will recall the denotative meaning and suggest possible connotative meanings for each signifier. But the actual meaning for each message is context-dependent: the codified relations between the signifiers in the particular context must be interpreted according to the syntactic, semantic, and social codes so that the most appropriate meaning is attributed.
Away from the communication process itself, decoding has become so second nature in the lives of individuals to the point where we do not even realize we are decoding. When driving, for example, we are using the color of the traffic lights as the basis of the encoded messages which we interpret. A green light is an encoded signal telling us to go ahead. Here, it is the context-dependent meaning – according to universally agreed-upon social codes of road rules – where we appropriately attach meaning to the colors of traffic lights. Overall, these encoded messages, supported by social codes and other factors, “function like dictionaries or look-up tables” for individuals in society.
Misinterpretations in decoding messages
Although the addresser may have a very clearly defined intention when encoding and wish to manipulate the audience into accepting the preferred meaning, the reality is not that of textual determinism.What is decoded does not follow inevitably from an interpretation of the message. Roman Jakobson suggests that in the process of sending and receiving messages, “ecoding involves moving from symbol to referent to experience as the constitution of meaning”. Not infrequently, the addressees find different levels of meaning. Addressees, or the receivers, decode according to their cultural signs because it is semiotics that often entails “the decoding of cultural signs”. When decoding, the receiver must be the one to find the balance between a signifier and a signified. In finding a balance, however, receivers engage in an “analytical quest” that may result in them inferring a completely unintended meaning that the encoder/sender did not intend. This could be because of the receiver’s cultural background, previous knowledge, or perhaps another reason.
Umberto Eco called this mismatch between the intended meaning and interpreted meaning aberrant decoding. This apparent failure of communication may result for a variety of reasons, including 1) because the parties may use different codes due to their social class, 2) because the parties have different training or ability due to different world views or ideologies, or 3) because the parties are from different cultures. David Morley argues that the outcome of decoding will be influenced by pragmatic issues, i.e. whether:
- the addressee can comprehend the message in its entirety;
- the message is relevant to the addressee;
- the addressee is enjoying the experience of receiving the message; and
- the addressee accepts or rejects the addresser's values.
Symmetry and the two dominant positions
Signs are known to have some sort of balance in them—known as symmetry. When there is symmetry in the communication process - symmetry between encoding and decoding - it can be placed in the field of “meaningful media signs”. Within this view, there are two dominant positions that one can take: there is the most symmetrical position and there is the least symmetrical position .In the dominant hegemonic position, “the viewer interprets the media sign according to the same logic used by encoder-producers”. For example, if you are a recreational hockey player living in Canada and see a commercial from a Canadian company for their new line of “ultra flex” hockey sticks, you will already understand the main benefits of the hockey sticks because you play hockey. In this example, you have something in common with the Canadian company that produced the commercial, which allows you to share the same logic used by the Canadian company. When the receiver/decoder interprets the sign using the same logic as the encoder, it can be called a “preferred reading”.
In the oppositional position, “the viewer recognizes the preferred reading that has been constructed by producers, but rejects it in its totality”. Back to the example with hockey sticks, let’s say you – a recreational hockey player – understood the main benefits of the commercial for the new line hockey sticks, but reject the idea that it is an “ultra flex” stick because of the price and the image of the stick. Here, you still share the same logic as the encoder and still understand the commercial, but you reject it because of its look and price. This is the oppositional position. Note that most times the oppositional position occurs because the decoder sees the message as either deceptive or as a misrepresentation of the real world.
Semiotics in the world of advertising
Essentially, Semiotics works to understand how signs can be interpreted in various forms, one of which can be accomplished through Advertising. Since advertising works to persuading buyers to purchase goods and services, ads can display various messages . These advertisements often contain messages through images and words that help consumers interpret these symbols and signs. Therefore, this is how semiotics applies through advertising in simple terms. The use of semiotics as a method of advertising and marketing can be classified based on how the messages within the advertisements can answer three questions, who is the target audience, what is the purpose of the product, what is the product.For example, when analyzing tobacco advertisements, specifically Marlboro and Virginia Slims, they target two very different demographics. Marlboro targets a male audience that symbolizes “rugged, masculine, independent, and heroic overtones,” whereas Virginia Slims’s target audience is women that convey “women’s liberation, femininity, and glamour”. These two examples display and answer who is the target audience? Which depends on the demographic. What is the purpose of the product? To sell cigarettes to their target audience, and what is the product? Which is the product of tobacco.
How the interpretation of law uses semiotics
When looking at law itself, it is a composite form where there are individual norms that are formed together to create a whole. Texts incorporate the structural features of the signifiers with which they are built, but they are not conceptually identical to their signifiers as a whole.According to Sebeok and Danesi, a coherent modelling system can be used to describe law. In traditional semiotic theory, a code is a system that provides specific types of signifiers that can be employed in a variety of ways and for a variety of representational goals.
In terms of semiotics, a lawyer's attempt to grasp the signs of the code, to explain the law, is called a decoding process, i.e., a method that is supplied to solve problems created by deviations and questions about intents that are buried in the code.