Viewers who decode oppositionally retotalize messages within alternative reference frames

Evidence

Finally, it is possible for a viewer perfectly to understand both the literal and connotative inflection given to an event, but to determine to decode the message in a globally contrary way. He detotalizes the message in the preferred code in order to retotalize the message within some alternative framework of reference. This is the case of viewer who listens to a debate on the need to limit wages, but who “reads” every mention of “the national interest” as “class interest.” He is operating with what we must call an oppositional code . One of the most significant political moments (they also coincide with crisis-points within the broadcasting organizations themselves for obvious reasons) is the point when events which are normally signified and decoded in a negotiated way begin to be given an oppositional reading. — Hall, Stuart, Essential Essays, Volume 1, 812

Categorization

• DEFINE: The ‘oppositional code’ is defined precisely: full comprehension of the preferred encoding followed by deliberate retotalization within an alternative framework.
• XREF: Connects to the reader’s engagement with Hall’s decoding/encoding theory across this volume, and to the concept of ‘class interest’ reading beneath ‘national interest’.