Date of Award
Spring 2020
Degree Name
Bachelor of Arts
Department
Media & Communication; College of Arts & Sciences
First Advisor
Dr. Lisa Holderman
Second Advisor
Dr. Alan Powell
Third Advisor
Dr. Michael Dwyer
Abstract
Stuart Hall, a cultural theorist who helped develop what we understand as modern media theory, defined reception theory as a sort of reader response implying that all media texts are encoded and decoded with messages. A producer of a media text encodes a message which is meant to be decoded by the consumer. They might accept the message, negotiate their own reading, or completely reject it. After spending a decade as the biggest show in the world, Game of Thrones came to a close in 2019 and after months of anticipation leading up to a final season completely fell out of the cultural conversation. In this piece, I explored an application of reception theory in the context of the series finale of HBO’s Game of Thrones.
Recommended Citation
Jock, Kaitlin, "Encoding, Decoding, and the End of Game of Thrones" (2020). Capstone Showcase. 8.
https://scholarworks.arcadia.edu/showcase/2020/media_communication/8
Encoding, Decoding, and the End of Game of Thrones
Stuart Hall, a cultural theorist who helped develop what we understand as modern media theory, defined reception theory as a sort of reader response implying that all media texts are encoded and decoded with messages. A producer of a media text encodes a message which is meant to be decoded by the consumer. They might accept the message, negotiate their own reading, or completely reject it. After spending a decade as the biggest show in the world, Game of Thrones came to a close in 2019 and after months of anticipation leading up to a final season completely fell out of the cultural conversation. In this piece, I explored an application of reception theory in the context of the series finale of HBO’s Game of Thrones.