Hall (1980), "Encoding and Decoding in the Television Discourse"

Hall (1980) argued that media discourse should be understood as a series of moments including production, distribution, and reproduction.  Each of these moments happens independently of the others, so that no single moment can control the others.

1. Production, Distribution, and Reproduction
The production moment represents circulation in Hall's (1980) model. At this point, television is coded discourse rooted in material instruments and ideological social relations.
The moment of distribution or consumption involves the audience translating the discourse into social understanding.
In Hall's (1980) reproduction moment, the social understanding produced through the reading of the discourse is acted out, naturalized, and internalized.
This cycle repeats, so that audiences are involved in a feedback loop with producers.

2. Encoding
In the encoding process, Hall (1980) argues, television producers create a narrative that fits within the ideological social relations present in the society. Narrative rules and established form must be accounted for so that the message can be communicated to others.

Hall (1980) argued that encoding was always at work, but he argues that understanding the process of encoding is valuable to understanding the process of media.

3. Decoding
The audiences uses personal knowledge of cultural codes to understand the message constructed in the production moment. Hall (1980) argues that there may be asymmetry in the encoding and decoding processes, due to things like power asymmetry between the encoder and the decoder and disagreement between the code and the referent.

4. "Selective Perception" Theory -- or "viewer positions"
Since all visual codes contain various connotations, there is always room for multiple readings. Hall's (1980) essay is perhaps most famous for his introduction of three "viewer positions."
From the dominant-hegemonic position, viewers accept the message within the intended ideological frame.
The negotiated position involves acceptance of some dominant messages and rejection of others. Viewers in this position often find ways of justifying some angles while arguing with others.
Finally, the oppositional position involves the viewer decoding from outside of hegemony. In this position, the viewer contests the ideological frame necessary for decoding the message from the dominant perspective.