Encounters with the Television Image: Thirty Years of Encoding Research

This chapter surveys 30 years of research on the audiovisual codes of television. This research centers on close readings of encoded texts and the processes and practices of television encoding. The chapter discusses the humanist precursors of encoding research (McLuhan, Ong, Carpenter); the first phase of educational research on individual production variables; the next phase, in which scholars of literary texts applied their methodologies to television studies; and finally the phase in which forms of critical theory and cultural studies were related to the study of the audiovisual codes of television. Forefront work of leading scholars (Horace Newcomb, Herbert Zettl, Stuart Hall) is discussed as it has affected this newly emerging field.