Aberrant decoding

Aberrant decoding or aberrant reading is a concept used in fields such as communication and media studies, semiotics, and journalism about how messages can be interpreted differently from what was intended by their sender. The concept was proposed by Umberto Eco in an article published first 1965 in Italian and 1972 in English.^[1]

According to Eco, aberrant decodings were rare in pre-industrial societies, when most communication occurred between people who shared the same culture. He lists four classes of exceptions to this:^[2]

People who didn't share the language.
People trying to interpret the meanings of past cultures, for example, Medieval people looking at Roman art.
People who didn't share the belief system, for example, Christians looking at pagan art.
People from different cultures, for example, white Europeans looking at Aboriginal art.

Eco continues that in contemporary media, instead of being exceptions, aberrant decodings have become the norm. For example, TV broadcasters know beforehand that their messages will be interpreted in various ways. He speculated that because of this freedom of interpretation, the power of media over individuals is much smaller than is actually thought.^[2]

This idea of examining the messages contained in the media and how the audience interprets them has since become one of the core concepts of academic media research.^[2] Eco's article influenced, among others, Stuart Hall's encoding/decoding theory.^[2]

John Fiske has argued that aberrant decoding occurs mainly with iconic codes, referring to visual messages.^[3]^{[note 1]} As an example, he explains how prehistoric cave paintings of animals are normally seen as graceful and moving, while Margaret Abercrombie made a claim in 1960^[4] that they are, in fact, depictions of dead animals. It can be argued, that our modern culture where we value living animals and only rarely encounter dead ones, leads us to aberrant decodings of the cave paintings.

Notes

^ Iconic sign in semiotics and communication theory could also refer to a class of signs defined by iconicity (as in Peirce's triadic sign theory). But in this case Fiske contrasts iconic signs with "verbal language" (p.78).

References

^ Eco, Umberto (1972). "Towards a semiotic inquiry into the television message". Working Papers in Cultural Studies. University of Birmingham.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d Hartley, John (2002). Communication, Cultural and Media Studies: The key concepts (3rd ed. ed.). London: Routledge. ISBN 978-0415268899. {{cite book}}: |edition= has extra text (help); Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
^ Fiske, John (1990). Introduction to Communication Studies. London: Routledge. ISBN 978-0415046725.
^ Abercrombie, Margaret (1960). The Anatomy of Judgement: An Investigation into the Processes of Perception and Reasoning. London: Hutchinson. ISBN 978-1299246812. {{cite book}}: ISBN / Date incompatibility (help)

[4] Iconic sign in semiotics and communication theory could also refer to a class of signs defined by iconicity (as in Peirce's triadic sign theory). But in this case Fiske contrasts iconic signs with "verbal language" (p.78).

[Eco1972-1] Eco, Umberto (1972). "Towards a semiotic inquiry into the television message". Working Papers in Cultural Studies. University of Birmingham.

[Hartley2002-2] Hartley, John (2002). Communication, Cultural and Media Studies: The key concepts (3rd ed. ed.). London: Routledge. ISBN 978-0415268899. {{cite book}}: |edition= has extra text (help); Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)

[Fiske1990-3] Fiske, John (1990). Introduction to Communication Studies. London: Routledge. ISBN 978-0415046725.

[Abercrombie1960-5] Abercrombie, Margaret (1960). The Anatomy of Judgement: An Investigation into the Processes of Perception and Reasoning. London: Hutchinson. ISBN 978-1299246812. {{cite book}}: ISBN / Date incompatibility (help)

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