Active and Passive Media (Group Discussions Continue)

 •   Hall, Encoding/Decoding (MCS)

•   Hebdige, “From Culture to Hegemony and Subculture” (MCS)

•   Beavour, “The Second Sex” (hand out)

Questions to Consider in Week 9

As consumers of messages and meanings who actively decode messages, how do we discern what value something has, its utility, and its relevance?

It often seems that while reading these guys we are altogether zombies, strings on a puppet, even the most intelligent of us are seduced. Maybe it is a matter of choosing our poison (code) and hoping for the best. Are we all that helpless; is our fate left to those who control the discourse? Is resistance futile? Even if we choose a discourse or ideology of reprieve, is it still a temporary refuge offered by the hegemony?

What would be Ciroan’s retort to the aforementioned ideas.