Decoding (semiotics)

Decoding, in semiotics, is the process of interpreting a message sent by an addresser (sender) to an addressee (receiver). The complementary process creating a message for transmission to an addressee is called encoding. All communication depends on the use of codes. More traditional communication models always include three main elements: a sender, a transmitter, and a receiver (Fawkes 21). The sender is responsible for “encoding” (i.e., selecting information) their message and putting it through a transmitter (i.e., a communication channel or a medium like a video, radio, text messaging, etc.) (Fawkes 21). When the encoded information, put through the transmitter, gets to the receiver, it is the responsibility of the receiver to “decode” (i.e., interpret the message) and respond accordingly with feedback (Fawkes 21). 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(s) 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 (Eadie and Goret 29). When there is no value to a message the decoder cannot make meaning out of it (Eadie and Goret 29). 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 (for labeling usages by reference to national characteristics, see Americanism).