Message misunderstandings often reflect viewers rejecting the dominant code, not communication failure

Evidence

At another level, encoders also mean that their audience has “made sense” of the message in a way different from that intended. What they really mean is that viewers are not operating within the dominant or preferred code. This ideally is the perfectly transparent communication. Instead, what they have to confront is the fact of “systematically distorted communication.” — Hall, Stuart, Essential Essays, Volume 1, 804

Categorization

• DEFINE: Introduces and defines the preferred/dominant code as the crux of what ‘misunderstanding’ really means for broadcasters.