Communications started in my conscious as a fancy word to say “chat.”
I would “communicate” with my peers, “communicate” a thought, “communicate” my feelings.
Never did it occur to me that such a simple term would involve such an intricately formed model.
Thus, Stuart Hall shocked me.
As the cultural studies scholar who formulated the study as “Encoding and Decoding in the Television Discourse,” Hall created a theoretical, almost technical approach to traditional media.
The basis of communications was formed around the proposition that messages and opinions are decoded from the basis of social context and changing capability with collective action.
Encoding-decoding allowed me to view communications as almost a reflection of the idea of translation.
The translation aspect of the theory is seen in decoding.
Decoding encapsulates both verbal and non-verbal forms of communication, such as nonverbal body language observation and emotional cues. It also encapsulates words spoken.
Indeed, the given, or encoded, message must be interpreted by its recipient.
Encoding is the production of the message, existing as a system of coded meanings.
In this way, the creator, or sender, of said message is tasked with comprehending how the outside world cooperates with the recipient or audience.
In other words, communication proved not to be a longer word for a chat.
It proved to be a complex framework encapsulating message comprehension.
Communicating Change 