Hall's Encoding/ Decoding and Its Influence on Media Study

As an outstanding representative of British Cultural Studies, Stuart Hall has long been occupied as the leader of the Birmingham Centre for Contemporary Cultural Studies (CCCS) in its theories, thoughts and factual work. He has been concentrated on the critical topics such as culture, ideology, and identity. In the field of mass communication, major contribution of Hall lies in his attempts to connect the ideological encoding of cultural formation to the decoding position of the audiences. His thought develops the critical theories of mass communication. Given the importance of Hall's role in the contemporary cultural studies and his significant contribution to mass media research, it is worthwhile for us to probe deeper into his thought to explore valuable contents. In this essay, it mainly concerns Hall's new model of encoding/decoding and the theory of the audience.     

Encoding and Decoding for Love Actually

British film Love Actually Follows the lives of eight very different couples in dealing with their love lives in various loosely and interrelated tales all set during a frantic month before Christmas in London,England.Bearing in mind that media studies is a major part of British studies,I intend to set the discussion of Love Actually in the frame of media studies.Drawing on British cultural theorists Stuart Hall’s theory of"Encoding/decoding"and analyzing film critiques and audience comments on Rotten Tomatoes,this paper argues that the production and reception of Love Actually shows the workings of encoding and decoding of meanings regarding this particular movie.     

Public (relations) disturbances and civil disobedience: Why I use “The Yes Men Fix the World” to teach public relations ethics

This “best practices” essay suggests that instructors consider using the movie “The Yes Men Fix the World” as a tool for teaching and discussion of public relations ethics. Although this movie appears at first to skewer the public relations industry and its uses in the corporate sector, in fact the movie provides a number of opportunities for discussion of important topics such as corporate social responsibility and professional ethics. Using this movie as a teaching tool for public relations ethics supports the suggestions of Karlberg (1996), Dozier and Lauzen (2000), and L’Etang (2005) that scholars and educators should consider the application of critical theory to the study and teaching of public relations.     

Radclyffe Hall, E. Lynn Harris, and Franz Kafka: Christianity, Queerness, and the Politics of Normalcy

This essay examines Christian tropes in three queer texts: Radclyffe Hall's The Well of Loneliness (1928), E. Lynn Harris's Just As I Am (1994), and Franz Kafka's The Metamorphosis (1915). At issue are the linkages between queer theory and literature, on the one hand, and Christian paradigms, on the other hand. This essay considers whether, insofar as they deploy Christian tropes, these texts sustain a politics of the normal that inevitably subvert queer-positive representations.     

Reactions to interperson distance and topic intimacy: A comparison of strangers and friends

An experiment was conducted to test certain theoretical predictions derived from theories proposed by Hall (1966) and by Sundstrom and Altman (1976). Forty-five opposite-sex pairs discussed either a high, medium, or low intimacy topic while standing facing each other at either an intimate (30 cm), personal (60 cm), or social (165 cm) interperson distance. Following discussion, participants rated their reactions to the interperson distance on several dimensions. The results provided no support for the hypothesis, inferred from Hall's theory, that subjects would prefer an interperson distance that corresponded to topic intimacy. Ratings of feelings about the interpersondistance revealed a nonlinear relationship between rated feelings and interperson distance that is partially in accord with expectations derived from Sundstrom and Altman's theory, although there were some inconsistent findings.     

An Overview of Three Models of Marital Therapy

In this article three models of Marital or Couples Therapy are described. Framo's approch to working with couples illustrates Psychoanalytic Theory, Stuart — Social Learning Theory, and White — Systems Theory. For each model, the theory and the ensuing practice are discussed, with attention to the factors that lead to change, assessment, interventions, the role of the therapist. Each is placed within the Bernal and Baker (1979) level of intervention framework. Strengths of each model are highlighted. Each therapist's own style in session is described.     

Motion Picture Attendance and Social Isolation

It is hypothesized that a major cause of movie attendance is social isolation, which is measured by population increase, percentage of the population changing houses, and an urbanism index. Fairly high product-moment correlations are found between each of the two population mobility measures and movie attendance; the combined multiple correlation is even higher. Adding the urbanism index to this multiple correlation increases it only slightly. Significant regional differences in movie attendance are found to disappear when population increase is controlled.     

Equality

Stuart White has written a very clear and accessible introductionto debates about equality in contemporary mainstream Anglophonepolitical theory. All of the leading positions are set out anddiscussed, so readers of this book will get a very good ideaof the kinds of discussion that now dominate the field. Theywill also get a strong sense of the style of contemporary analyticpolitical theory – the emphasis on argument and counter-argument,the use of hypothetical examples, of stylised categories, ofrepresentative individuals, of abstraction and of relevant empiricalresearch. It is a remarkable feat that White has managed tocover     

How scientists and engineers use cultural resources to make controversies and selves meaningful

In this essay, I provide an overview of recent sociological studies of science, technology, religion, and spirituality; the ways they contribute to sociological theorizing; and make some recommendations for future research. There are two major themes in these studies. One of them analyzes religious and spiritual discourse as controversy practice, suggesting how religion and spirituality are used as cultural discourses to understand controversy, who the actors are or should be, how to act in a controversy, and how popular discourses inform, and are informed by, science and technology discourses. This theme contributes to theorizing by describing how forms of cultural talk organize understandings of controversies, interactions, and action. The second theme explores scientific and religious identities, and how they are made compatible with each other. This theme points sociological theory toward considering science and religion relations as intertextual relations.     

Consumer behavior and superstradom

In this paper, we view the superstar phenomenon as an implication of probabilistic mechanisms by which individuals are selected for the production of artistic products (e.g., motion pictures and operas). Specifically, this study employs a stochastic model of G. Udny Yule and Herbert A. Simon as probability mechanisms through which individuals are chosen by casting directors for their appearance in motion pictures, and predicts that movie appearances will be concentrated among a few lucky individuals. We find that empirical data shows remarkable conformity to the prediction of our model. In all genres of motion pictures, we find that the probability distribution implied by the stochastic model explains more tha 97% of the cross-sectional distribution of movie appearances by individuals. Our results support the notion that consumers (i.e., casting directors) minimize search cost by choosing the most popular movie stars.     

Controversy and Ideological Hegemony in Sociological Theory*

Sociological theory has been characterized by the recurrence of several controversies since its inception. The relationship between the individual and society represents one of these. Cooley's notion of the individual and society being twin-born has been labeled one of the major breakthroughs in this controversy. According to Tiryakian, Cooley's work signaled the end of that controversy, but still it reappears. Drawing heavily from Mannheim, Berger and Pullberg, and Therborn, we examine the recurrence of the individual versus society controversy. Sociology, we contend, occupies an alienated position within capitalist society where positivist epistemology serves as an ideological veil, concealing the existence of ontological presuppositions, distorting social reality, and preventing any meaningful attempt to understand the development of sociology, or the recurrence of the individual-society controversy. As an ideological veil, positivism contributes to the recurring bifurcation of social reality. The dominance of positivism within sociology, moreover, gives it a hegemonic status, further negating any recognition that the individual and society are interdependent.     

Role of motives and attributes in consumer motion picture choice

The study focuses on consumer motion picture motives and choice criteria. Its purpose can be specified into the following objectives: (1) to examine the motivational basis of cinema attending. (2) to examine the predictive ability of movie motives and consumers' attribute importances in preference regressions of four types of movie, (3) to carry out a motion picture choice analysis by predicting audience membership with discriminant analysis. The data is based on a convinience sample of Finnish consumers (N = 228) attending one of the following types of movie: adventures/ thrillers, human/ social dramas, sex movies, entertainment movies.The results of a group of multivariate analyses (factor analysis, canonical correlation, preference regression, and discriminant analysis) indicate that consumers attending different types of films have distinctly separate motivation bases, as well as attribute importance profiles, underlying their movie choices. Each movie type had a specific preference structure, expressed by the regression coefficients. Finally, the discriminant analysis suggests that the general motive and attribute variables are effective also in predicting motion picture choice. On balance, the results were mutually supportive and exemplify the managerial usefulness of quantitative consumer analysis also in the case of such abstract leisure products as motion pictures.     

The efficacy of educational movies on AIDS knowledge and attitudes among college students

University students from five classes were randomly assigned to seeing either a movie on AIDS or a movie on first aid. Six weeks later, both groups of students filled out a questionnaire measuring their knowledge of AIDS, attitudes toward AIDS, and attitudes toward homosexuals. In general, the differences between the two groups on the knowledge and attitudes measures were slight. In particular, there was little effect on social attitudes. The showing of one educational movie on AIDS (particularly the movie that was used in this experiment) appears to be insufficient to educate students on this issue.     

The Hiroshima memory complex

The atomic bomb attack on Hiroshima on August 6, 1945 is one of the most powerful global memories. While the literature on global memories has greatly expanded in recent decades, Hiroshima remains surprisingly understudied. In addressing this lacuna, this paper develops a new theoretical prism for the study of global memories. It argues that the Hiroshima memory cannot be understood in isolation, but rather as the hub in a broader memory complex. This complex is the result of symbolic dialogues that connect Hiroshima with such different events, situations, and memories as Nanjing, Pearl Harbor, the Cold War, and so on. The paper demonstrates how these dialogues have been forged, often in the context of substantial controversy. While distinctly sociological in orientation, the paper takes its main theoretical inspiration from cultural, literary, and history scholars such as Jan and Aleida Assmann, Sebastian Conrad, Astrid Erll, Ann Rigney, Michael Rothberg, Aby Warburg and Mikhael Bakhtin.     

RECONSIDERING KENNETH BURKE: His Contributions to the Identity Controversy

The social theory of Kenneth Burke is relevant to the contemporary controversy about identity. His theory of identity, developed in the 1930s, addresses several important issues at the heart of contemporary debate. Though not naively, Burke believed that identity can serve as an instrument of social critique. His own defense of this position is, I think, worthy of consideration.     

The significance of the significance test controversy: comments on ‘Size Matters’

The concerns expressed and issues raised by Zialik and McCloskey concerning the use of tests of statistical inference have also been raised in sociology and psychology. This paper examines the similarities and differences between the way that the significance test controversy has been discussed in the wider social sciences and Zialik and McCloskey's discussion of the implications for economics. The issues are similar in that different effects of over-reliance on the rejection of the null hypothesis are identified. These include mistakes and errors in statistical inference, the lack of the use of diagnostic statistics to qualify and guide statistical inference, and the broader impact on the field of accumulation of type II errors and lack of innovation in the field. There is considerable agreement on these points between sociologists, psychologists and economists who are concerned about these issues. However, there are also important differences that are discussed in this response. In particular, in the other social sciences the significance test controversy has broadened out and has been linked firstly to more discussions of the limitations of experimental and correlational designs and to a broader critique of positivism and scientism in the social sciences. Without this broader context the significance of the significance test controversy is understood in a more restricted way as a technical problem with widespread effects whereas in the social sciences it has been understood as symptomatic of broader disciplinary commitments in theory and purpose.     

Responding to crisis representations on film: W.R. Grace goes beyond A Civil Action

Films represent modern day muckraking, telling stories of true corporate misdeeds. This study compares the reactive image reparation efforts of W.R. Grace in addressing alleged well water contamination at the time of the allegations and the proactive efforts after the release of A Civil Action detailing the civil case. The public relations efforts of W.R. Grace as the movie premiered are analyzed and the lessons organizations can learn from their efforts are presented.     

DEPRECIATION IN PRODUCTION ANALYSIS AND IN INCOME AND WEALTH ACCOUNTS: RESOLUTION OF AN OLD DEBATE

In this article, I propose a resolution for the long-standing controversy over depreciation. I develop, from capital theory, income and wealth accounting capital concepts and compare them with those from production analysis and productivity measurement. I conclude that depreciation in economic accounts is exactly the same measurement as in production analysis. As for empirical implications, market-based measures of depreciation are appropriate for economic accounts, provided they are appropriate empirical measures of economic depreciation.     

Boundary Politics in the Public Sphere: Openness, Secrecy, and Leak

The issue of openness/secrecy has not received adequate attention in current discussion on the public sphere. Drawing on ideas in critical theory, political sociology, and cultural sociology, this article explores the cultural and political dynamics involved in the public sphere in modern society vis-à-vis the practice of open/secret politics by the state. It argues that the media, due to their publicist quality, are situated at the interface between publicity and secrecy, which thereby allows for struggles over the boundary of state openness/secrecy in the public sphere. A theory of boundary politics is introduced that is contextualized in the relationship among state forms, the means of making power visible/invisible (media strategies), and symbolic as well as discursive practices in the public sphere. In explaining the dynamics of boundary politics over openness/secrecy, three ideal-types of boundary creation are conceptualized: open politics, secrecy, and leak. The theory is illustrated with a case study of the Patten controversy in Hong Kong.     

Participative Decision-Making: An Integration of Multiple Dimensions

Few topics have resulted in as much theory,empirical study, controversy, and practical applicationas participative decision-making (PDM). Although mostpast empirical research has assumed that thedecision-making process in PDM was unidimensional, this paperexplores a multidimensional view and examines theintegration of degree of participation anddecision-making processes and their relationship withsatisfaction and performance. The results suggest that thedegree of involvement in generating alternatives,planning, and evaluating results are relatedsignificantly to satisfaction and that degree ofinvolvement in generating alternatives and planning arerelated significantly to performance.