A STUDY ON THE ENCODING AND DECODING OF ADVERTISING

-With Reference to TV Public Service Advertising-

CHO, CHUN-YOUNG(The Graduate School of Public Administration Yonsei University)

The purpose of this study is to examine the signification system of advertising. This study stands on the assumption that the meanings of the advertisements are not transmitted through the linear line of "producer-message-receiver", rather, the meaning come out of the "overdetermined" interaction between the producer and the receiver mediated by the message.

Most of advertising researches conducted so far has had the limitation in explaining the signification system of advertising.

The reason is that these researches emphasized the relation of only the limited variables in advertising communication.

In this context, this study analyzed the signification process of the advertising in which communicator, message and receiver interact together. For the examination of these signification process, this study selected 5 TV public service advertisements (PSA) and analysed the signs in the messages, advertising plan, the producer's encoding process through depth interview, and the audience's (university student's) decoding patterns according to sex.

Major findings are as follows.

First, regardless of the difference in producer's involvement and the level of using symbols between product advertising and public service advertising, the producers' encoding process was in the boundary of the stereotyping frame of producer's reference group.

The stereotyping frame was affected by the practice of production, advertiser's intent and thought as well as the 'fashion' of the time.

Secondly, the many signs of PSA messages played the supplementary role of main meaning, rather than having an independent meaning of its own.

The signs of the messages tended to have a directional meanings through the relation of the episodic and narative symtagm. Signs were found to be not existing as static forms in messages, and to be an incomplited system to be completed and transfered by audiences.

Third, the audience decoding of the message differed according to the theme of PSA and the predispositions of audience reference groups. In other words, decoding patterns of audience was found to be different according to the relation of the theme and audience, the main value contained in the message, and appeal methods.

In conclusion, the findings of this study is that the dynamics is existing in the creation and acceptance of advertising sign and meaning which occurs in the signification process among producer, message and audience.