Research On Stuart Hall’s Culture Communication Theory

This paper mainly discusses the cultural communication theory of famous contemporary British scholar Stuart Hall. The theory will be divided into three hierarchical and interwoven parts:the first is the basis of cultural transmission can be achieved-the cultural representation; the second is the mode of the process of cultural transmission-"coding/ decoding"; the third is study of the process of cultural transmission from the perspectives of politics. Hall’s study of cultural transmission aims to deal with the relationship in media, society and power. Nowadays, with diversified forms of media, Hall’s study model is still rational. Also it shows the important practical significance to the critique of contemporary media culture of China by exploring how the meaning enter into the text in the process of cultural, explaining dislocation phenomenon between the producer and the receiver, and discovering the game of public in the platform of media. So this paper consists of two parts:the first is to run through the cultural communication theory of Hall; the second is to establish theory in contemporary media environment of China by applying Hall’s theory.In the first part of the first chapter, the representation theory is regarded as the basis of cultural transmission in view of the essence of cultural representation, which is the produce of significance. Exploring the concept of Hall’s representation is to figure out the relationship in representation, language, and meaning- people who use the same symbol system can deliver meanings and communicate with each other. In this sense, people constructed the meaning world through representation. Hall shows that two systems of representation will work in the process of representing. The two systems are connected with code. The operation of representation has three modes:reflection, intentionality and constructivism. Hall emphasized the semiotic and the discursive approaches in the constructionist approach to "representation". According to Foucault’s discourse theory, the connection between the representation and ideological will be established in the discourse. In the second chapter, Hall describes the mode of cultural transmission with the theory of coding / decoding. The research of each process of encoding and decoding examines the problem of information loss in the distribution process. Hall proposed three different decoding methods which changes the traditional linear mode of transmission and affirms the initiative of public in the information decoding process. The third chapter discusses the relationship in media, society and authority, and lead Hall’s angel of view transfers into the political arena. It examines the problem consciousness by explore the identity of Hall as British researcher. Then Hall inspired by Althusser’s Ideology theory and Gramsci’s hegemony theory..Meanwhile, he absorbed the articulation method proposed by Laclau and Murphy. All that formed Hall’s unique sight in cultural studies.The second part of is the innovation of the paper, It analyze the cultural phenomenon in the multimedia environment of current China by Hall’s cultural communication theory. In this part, from the side of the public, it focus on that the public play active roles in the Internet, and have normative effect on political and cultural life, Also it reflects the irrational component of public who bring out the contradiction of resistance. In addition, I discover that the decoding of the audience changes the coding environment of cultural business, and that coding of the institutional structure of cultural business is effected by public discourse and bottom line maintained by the professionalism in the industry. Finally, by analysis the two identities of public, either coder or decoder,to achieve the construction of the new media era theory.The paper explains Hall’s cultural communication theory in a systematic way, and integrated it into public discourse in context of new media era. It designed to inspect the gambling between the public which is constructed by life experiences the ideology transmitted by media. It will give summary and reflection to the value and significance of Hall’s theory through the analysis of the social platform.