The theory of encoding and decoding in media was first introduced by Stuart Hall that encoding means the production of messages and decoding is the way the audiences consuming the information (Hall 92-94). In the Netflix show Patriot Act, Hasan Minhaj brought up the topic about how the Saudi crown prince Muhammad bin Salman plays a role in the murder of the Washington journalist Jamal Khashoggi and did a great job in providing not only the encoded information from both TV news and newspaper but also the process of decoding the message with other related information about Saudi Arabia.
According to Hall in his article “Encoding, decoding”, what the producer encodes in the “television message” is usually different from what the receiver decodes (93). At the beginning of the “Saudi Arabia” episode, Minhaj provided five different pieces of western TV news which talked about how Saudi Arabia covers the death of Khashoggi in their consulate in Turkey. Furthermore, along with the report of the real reason of Khashoggi’s death, that it was Muhammad bin Salman who dispatched people to murder him, the encoding from the western media was an international shock and outrage towards Muhammad bin Salman. Later in the speech, other information was provided by Wall Street Journal that Muhammad bin Salman himself didn’t understand the outrage.
However, the encoding of the news outlets provided by western media didn’t include the background information about Saudi Arabia, while in the decoding part Minhaj further explained the reason behind Muhammad bin Salman’s confusion about outrage with several things he has done before, including how he arrested hundreds of his cousins, anti-terrorism campaigners and even women who protested the driving ban. What was decoded is that the Saudi crown prince has been used to the power abuses, so does Saudi Arabia.
The reason why the distinctions between the decoding and encoding are important for Minhaj is that as a presenter of the speech show, it’s his responsibility to bring the truthful and objective news pieces to the audience while presenting related information and his opinions towards the events for the audience to understand. I believe Minhaj did a great job in telling the story about Saudi Arabia from the perspective of both an American and a Muslim with combined pieces of encoded news information through his decoding process in order to make it a “communicative event” (92). Overall, the Patriot Act show encoded messages from the news outlets from both the Western media side and the Saudi side. The show itself works as a huge encoded message, which allowed the audience to come up with their own interpretations and opinions when decoding the messages.
Citations
Hall, Stuart. “Encoding, decoding.” The Cultural Studies Reader. London, New York: Routledge. 1993. 90-103.