Stuart Hall- Hall's theory of encoding and decoding

'Media appears to reflect reality, but in fact they construct it.'

Halls analysis greatly helps textual analysis by increasing the scope for audiences to negotiate and oppose the statistics they see and hear. Hall believes that statistics are manipulated and exaggerated to sway the intended audiences into a particular view or way of seeing a certain subject even if the evidence appears factual. In relation to the police, this would allow for the government and press to easily create 'moral panics' to persuade and gain the audiences support for the increase in policing over the matter the moral panic has been created over.

The use of communication and the language within the text is created through what Hall believes are 'codes' presented throughout different stages of say, a TV programme or news.

Hall says that there are three main codes, these are:
First being the Hegemonic code (the code the encoder expects the decoder to recognise, the clear message is being taken.)
Second (sort of 1-and-a-half) is the Professional code (works in tandem with the Hegemonic code, put simply, to add effect e.g. Professional displayed, visual quality, they help emphasise the meaning of the news story or event.)
Third is the Negotiated code (recognises legitimacy of Hegemonic codes but in a way creates its own rules to enforce a situation, it creates 'exceptions' to the rules.)
Last is the Oppositional code (it is possible for the viewer to understand the literal and connotative view of the article but it decode it in a globally 'contrary' way, decode it to an understandable level for many people)

How Hall relates to the opening quote with his argument is that the meaning of something is never fixed or determined by the encoder. The message of something being sent is never transparent and will always have some form of opinion and means to persuade. The audience is not a passive recipient of articles, if a programme is meant to go out to make people feel sympathetic to others on the show and won't necessarily do that, people may have other views and not feel sympathetic.

Hall believes that Through the repeated telling of a narrative e.g. 9/11 a culturally specific interpretation becomes not only universal, but it becomes common-sense.