Film as a Mass Communication Medium: Unpacking Its Encoding and Decoding Processes

Abstract

Communication is the art sending and receiving information, idea or messages from one end to another. The medium of communication  could take diverse means which could be traditional, formal, informal or even electronic. The content of information to be communicated  from a sender ultimately determines the medium or media to be employed by the sender. Film as an electronic medium of  communicating ideas passes through stages before reaching the decoder which could be referred to as viewers. The peculiarity of film  medium is embedded in its ability to be decoded by all classes of people in the society since it is an audio /visual medium. The codes in  filmmaking which the film maker encodes to arrive at the finished film product is decoded by the target audience whom the message is  meant for. The decoding of film language transcends from the script conception to the final level which is distribution. Using a  comparative analytical method, this paper sees the process of film making as an art of encoding a message both to the film makers and  the targeted audience who get to see the film as a finished product. The success of every film is dependent on the ability of all film designers on set to understand codes from the director as the chief interpreter. This paper sees a communication breakdown when the methodology employed by the film maker does not deliver the intended message to the audience via the film crew. It therefore posits  that right coding system should be judiciously applied for proper decoding by the viewers.