The ideas of encoding and decoding adapted by Stuart Hall, a Jamaican-born British sociologist, suggested that the broadcasting structures of a TV programme have “encoding” and “decoding”.
- “Encoding” is when the producer encodes a meaning, a message, or definitions and assumptions of a situation in the programme based on the producer’s ideologies, knowledge and sources. Then, the programme became a “meaningful discourse”.
- “Decoding” is where the receiver/audience decodes the “meaningful discouse” through their framework of knowledge or background.
Therefore, “the codes of encoding and decoding may not be perfectly symmetrical.”
Stuart Hall, 1980
This is because of the differences in the structure of relationships and roles between broadcasters and audiences, and the “codes” might be distorted during transmission.
In terms of “decoding”, Hall also suggested that there are three hypothetical positions:
The audience takes or accepts the meaning or message of the programme entirely and interprets it following the message encoded in the programme.
The mixture of accepted and oppositional elements. The audience agrees with the dominant message but also has its own rules or opinions toward the message.
The audience may thoroughly understand the encoded message, but they oppositely decode it or retotalize it.
“Encoding” and “Decoding” in The Little Mermaid
Encoding:
The Little Mermaid casting Halle Bailey, a Black actress, as the lead role of The Little Mermaid, Ariel is trying to push and promote diversity, representation and breaks the rule that “Disney classics’ heroes are mostly white”. In Disney’s classic The Little Mermaid animated film, Ariel is presented as White.
Decoding:
Dominant-hegemonic position
Many Black family’s parents are happy with Halle Bailey as Ariel because their Black children are happy to see a Black “Disney Princess”.
Such as:
Mr Shanks felt emotional after watching The Little Mermaid’s trailer and saw her daughters being happy when watching the trailer. He thanks Disney in the caption for making his kids feel seen and said: “Kids need to see themselves in the world to feel equally a part of it” in the video.
The user “callmedarii” on TikTok shared her Black kids’ joyful reaction while watching The Little Mermaid’s trailer and said in the caption that this is why representation matters.
Sherri Hope Culver, director of the Center for Media and Information Literacy, also mentioned that having a Disney character who is not just a princess but a real, live-action person is vital, especially for people of colour, who rarely see themselves reflected in media. Hollywood’s lack of representation makes it hard for parents of children of colour to find media role models for their kids. Young girls often form strong parasocial bonds with Disney princesses, so seeing a popular character change from White to Black leaves a positive, lasting impression.
Oppositional position
People opposed aggressively casting a Black actress as Ariel and criticised the film and Halle.
Such as:
- #NotMyAriel campaign on US social media.
- Chinese and South Korean social media were riddled with bad comments and outcry over casting a Black actress.
- Vietnamese audiences expressed negative responses online, such as saying the film is a nightmare or shaming the heroin looks ugly and more like a witch or a servant than a princess.
- Some Vietnamese netizens dismissed accusations of racism, claiming that they were only comments on Bailey’s suitability for the role. One argument is that they argued that their childhood attachment is to the 1989 animated Ariel, depicted as a red-haired and white-skinned girl. Any deviation from such portrayal will feel like destroying their childhood.
By looking at The Little Mermaid’s audience’s reactions, it can be seen that the contrast between “dominant” and “oppositional” responses mostly depends on their race background, which matches the “Encoding/Decoding” concept. What’s your opinion?
This is a really good blog post; I found it really easy to read, and it gets straight to the point. The post highlights the importance of on-screen representation for people of colour, especially from a company like Disney, which has a heavy influence over the younger generation. You gave a good description of the theory, and the Little Mermaid live-action is a great example to showcase the dominant and oppositional responses because when the trailer was first released, there was a huge divide in people’s reactions. You also included examples of people’s responses, which made it easier to understand what the dominant and oppositional readings look like in practice, which is helpful. Overall, I really enjoyed reading this post 🙂
Thank you so much!! 😀
Hey Jack! I think you did a great job showing how race and personal experiences shape the way people decode the film’s message. But maybe it would be more interesting to dive a bit deeper into how the film’s marketing and Disney’s intentions also played a role in encoding this message of representation? But anyway, it’s a really thoughtful analysis!
This is a great blog! The graphics are easy to help me understand better. I like the example you used to explain the “encoding” and “decoding”, because the issue of the Little Mermaid’s skin color sparked huge controversy online at the time, I also participated in the discussions, which resonated with me deeply. I further realized the diversity and complexity of the audience’s decoding positions mentioned in Stuart Hall’s encoding and decoding theory in the context of real-world media communication. If possible, a negotiated position example could also be provided to enrich this theory. 😁