Messages are polysemic, so decoding never guarantees preferred intended meaning.

Evidence

The semiological influence leads to the emphasis on the key role of the (largely unconscious) linguistic, visual, and cultural codes that underlie the communications process. In a fundamentally transformative reversal, this emphasis shifts the question of misunderstanding from being a marginal kink in a communications process otherwise presumed to be smooth to a central place in the analysis—where differential understandings of any message are seen as the norm. — Hall, Stuart, Essential Essays, Volume 1, 759 (#corroborates, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Decoded meanings, not messages, are what produce effects; Misunderstanding is the norm rather than an anomaly in communication — Hall, Stuart, Essential Essays, Volume 1, 759; Every text inevitably conveys meanings its author neither intended nor controlled. — David Harvey, The Condition of Postmodernity: An…, 342

Related

• Misunderstanding is the norm rather than an anomaly in communication (similarity 0.89)
• People answer what they think you mean, not what you say (similarity 0.88)
• Communication misunderstanding is the norm, not a marginal defect. (similarity 0.86)
• Misunderstanding, not clarity, is the norm in media communication (similarity 0.84)
• Apparent audience ‘misunderstanding’ often signals departure from dominant preferred codes. (similarity 0.82)
• Misunderstanding in communication arises from code asymmetry, not mere distortion. (similarity 0.82)
• Decoded meanings, not messages, are what produce effects (similarity 0.82)
• Message misunderstandings often reflect viewers rejecting the dominant code, not communication failure (similarity 0.81)
• A message must be meaningfully decoded before it can produce any effect. (similarity 0.81)
• Meaning is polysemic and receivers may not decode what producers encoded. (similarity 0.79)
• Semantic-level misreadings of media are socially structured, not errors (similarity 0.79)
• All communication is necessarily a partial selection from inner reality (similarity 0.78)

Broader Connections

• Misunderstanding is the norm rather than an anomaly in communication #corroborates (0.85) — Hall, Stuart, Essential Essays, Volume 1, 759
• Decoded meanings, not messages, are what produce effects #corroborates (0.80)