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Media, Culture & Society
http://mcs.sagepub.com/
Codes and cultural analysis
John Corner
Media Culture Society 1980 2: 73
DOI: 10.1177/016344378000200107
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73-
Codes and cultural analysis
CORNER*
JOHN
’We mean code, for instance, a verbal language such as
by
English, Italian or German; visual systems, such as traffic
road card etc; and so on.’
signals, signals, games,
Umberto Eco.
’ ’
Introduction ’
t
of most ambitious to be in academic
One the projects undertaken the still disputed
with
area of ’cultural studies’ has been the of the of forms
connecting study linguistic
of social and The between
the study structure, processes behaviour.’ relationship
im-
and or, more structures, has been an
society language broadly, symbolic long
of and the new is one
element social but
research, emphasis
portant anthropological
with
a in both the
which seeks to obtain of socio-cultural keeping
precision analysis
’scientific’ levels of systematic investigation achieved by modern linguistics and,
a
often, the ’scientific’ ambitions of much radical social The of
quite theory. system
to
it are seen
and of which uses
language the system the society
particular particular
in an that of
be study
mutually determining relationship-such linguistic
important,
into an of a and its characteristic
a certain kind offers inroads understanding society
also in the of a whole of
have been used study range
processes. Linguistic paradigms
cultural phenomena, including those not previously thought of as having directly
and
behaviour
such as dress and of social
dimensions, aspects
linguistic photography,
A widened of has
organisation. meaning ’language’ emerged.
of who themselves to this socio-
Many the researchers have addressed broadly
in from a social science base
linguistic enterprise (as well as work sociolinguistics
a of semiotic and critical have
there has been range structuralist, literary influences)
used with
had at some or other to the notion of which have
resort point ’code’, they
of definitions. In this article
of and to a number
varying degrees emphasis according
to of on dominant
I examine some of the these concentrating
propose problems usages,
within the area of cultural studies.
tendencies studies/communication
Codes
’code’ is used in and to indicate levels of
Although widely general speech writing
of set of
from the closure the morse-code correlations)
rule-system ranging (a tight
of conduct
of a of norms or
to the relative and code (which might
openness generality
at times be describable as the unspoken and implicitly organised tendencies of
to the
behavioural in the area of social research close
propriety) linguistic something
term. That is to
idea of a set of is indicated the
rule-governed operations usually by
normal
to the
than
to the morse-code
the towards closer
say, usage points something
Centre for Communication
Studies, Liverpool University.
of but Hall is most
1 Many examples could be of the centrality the approach perhaps (1973)
given
illustrative:
societal
is to in the of the inter-connection between
’My purpose suggest that, analysis culture,
structures and and formal or structures is absolutely pivotal.’
processes symbolic
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74
uses of code of where an more set of
manners, altogether loosely-arranged guiding
a lower of is
conventions, level determinations, suggested.
of
It worth that as well as different levels
is here systemic organisation being
noting
involved, there is also a matter of to be considered. The morse-code
transformation
in the form of a audio
to broken
allows transmit
one, language
by precise equivalents,
tone or beam; a code of manners, whilst it exerts some
light certainly systematic
not encode at all. It
pressure on behavioural choice, does strictly speaking anything
of to
may give a socially determined coherence and a regulated means expression
areas of social experience but exprcssion is not synonymous with transformation
across On this count, uses of code in cultural analysis
contemporary
systems. many
than to morse there is
to be closer to code of manners code,
appear though frequently
to a level of inter-connection at as I shall discuss
assumed be high systemic work,
later.
around this issue rather
in the area slide
A of texts
number introductory confidently,
that
as if code a of states and
systemic
suggested spectrum relatively unproblematic
of It is true that
the from to social behaviour was one
shift semaphore purely degree.
the of human and social
into the of how
matters of enter
degree question production
that is not to that are
is and controlled but say they
meanings variously organised
’mere’ of or that do not careful differentiation. In
matters degree they require fact,
to
due the researchers
in cultural code to be less
most confusions seem artfully
theory
when on own
to its
the term as to their victims its general imprecision
abusing falling
and its wide of in contexts.
range meanings specialised
The ’code’ has entered communications and cultural studies in Britain
concept
three rather distinct lines of research:
through
much work on ’communication
The of early theory’,
( i ) technological paradigms
infor-
in which the terms and are borrowed from
paradigms ’encoding’ ’decoding’
of into
and indicate the conversion
mation and telecommunications ’message’
theory
and the reverse and This is still in
’signal’ (Shannon Weaver, 1949). usage operative
and a unified therefore often
models (and highly abstract)
many perspectives seeking
general theory of communication. Combined with genetic and psychological per-
of Bateson and Wilden
it is also in the influential work ( i 95 i ) ( i 9~2).
spectives, present
(2) The class-specific, sociolinguist theories of Basil Bernstein and his fellow
researchers, those at the of London Institute of Education. Here
notably University
of and ’social of
code is defined as ’frame consistency’ structuring meanings’ (Bern-
stein, In a of the concept (Hasan, 1973), codes are seen to be
i 97 i ). development
as this is determined ’social
related the ’semantic structure of a both
to message’ by
’varieties of which are in
those
and as in determines
relationships’ it, turn, language’
fact the ’verbal realizations’ of the codes, here described primarily as ’codes of be-
haviour’. The ’restricted’ and ’elaborated’ of the code forms
categories are, course,
tradition. influential in the
most often referred to in this research Widely education,
has been used
elsewhere, sociology.
theory including political
of
as a to the social
The of semiotics general approach study
(3) developing project
linked to a structuralist cultural analysis. In this perspective, the location
meaning
of individual elements within systems-
meaning rule-governed wholes-signifying
to all The
extended social
is a fundamental often meaning. particular
proposition, quite
term code is clear if in
of the use of the
level closure indicated frequently implicit
by
the various and detailed theoretical and analytic treatments, treatments which
in a text or of
at work
involve the identification of codes given piece
usually separate
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75
social action. Barthes Eco Hall
Here, (I97I, and
1972), (1972, 1976) Burgelin (1968)
have
been influential whilst Levi-Strauss
(1973) key texts, early
(1963) provided, quite
a version
on, structuralist, of socio-textual also Geertz,
anthropological analysis. (See
and
1973 Leach, 1976.)
research in communication
Although studies has what at times
produced appears
to
be a
conflation of
these three broad uses of of must
’code’, any
points convergence
be considered in the light of the rather different implications, both in terms of the
notion ’systemic organisation’ and that of ’transformation’, which the approaches
We
carry. must also note the location of these within social or
approaches differing
political theories. Furthermore, although ’code’ is most often used as a ’language-
varies in the on or
society’ bridging social
concept, usage emphasis placed linguistic
characteristics-to the extent, that in some cases, the notion hardly seems to be
at all to
but be as almost within the distinctive
’bridging’ conceptualised lying entirely
territories of either the form, dialect, or the
linguistician
(language register) sociologist
(socialisation, belief-system, social structure). Nevertheless, and
perspectives (2) (3)
above can be related (and both distinguished from insofar as
perspective ( i )) they
both
address themselves, if at times only implicitly, to one of the central issues in
modern ’cultural studies’ and, indeed, a central one in much and social
political
research-ideology, variously and problematically related to consciousness and
the relation of above media
language. Here, (3) to is concern.
analysis my prime
It is the development of research in this area, from a in
stemming resurgence
Marxist work on
social which of
has to the use
knowledge, helped promote linguistic
paradigms in social research (in combination with other influences like the ’new’
the on of
anthropology), although emphasis textual analysis and the ’reading’ ideo-
not
formulations has in media
logical gone Marxist research.2
unchallenged
Bernstein’s concern with ’the structures of cultural transmission’ thus connects
with Umberto Eco’s more us
that shows
ambitious belief
formalistically ’Semiology
the universe of in codes and within the universe of
ideologies arranged sub-codes
signs’ (Eco, 1972).
It has been at a of
claimed one ’an be defined as
that, level, ideology system
may
semantic rules to generate messages’ (Eliseo Veron quoted in Camargo, 1974) so
that the appropriateness of the concept code to ideological analysis is apparent. It
offers the of ’cultural and
transmission’ its constitutive
possibility plotting language-
with a of it to
sense less also seems
systems gratifying precision. Though important,
its of if
be the case that connotation covert has won for the term an
dealings extra,
allure in the of some and
improper, eyes critical researchers investigating political
social as perpetrated ’myth’.
knowledge
theo-
One final I would make of observation is that the
point by way preliminary
retical and definitional of the of internal correlations within a
problem ’tightness’
and the of transformations
’code’ also the of character the
specific problem precise
or
are notion of a of codes
worked often the
(if any) being by plurality
compounded
code at work in the same artefact or communicative behaviour. That is
systems text,
to
and Eco one
to the of these codes subcodes
say, relationship systems, (see above)
another-as alternative or jointly contributory factors in the production of social
in of
the latter superimposition
meaning (and ways involving varying degrees overlap,
2 Murdock and are in what see as a bias
(1977) quite emphatic opposing they dangerous
Golding
and structures which are
towards of media artifacts their insufficiently
’readings’ ideological grounded
in social and economic Semiotics and work in cultural
analysis. socio-literary approaches (including
for
come in criticism.
studies) particular
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