Free # 11 Stuart Hall's-Circuit of Culture

The process that culture gathers meaning at five different “moments” is - representation, identity, production, consumption and regulation. These “moments” or “circuits” help to better understand Hall’s view on culture. The way culture is represented affects how it is identified. It also affects the way it is produced, consumed and how it is regulated. The major strength of this model is that it focuses on where power and culture meet. This allows the meaning to be shared and the communication process to begin. The purpose of the “circuit of culture,” is to represent cultural meaning. Production and regulation are both related to feedback from the audience, however are not identical. Each moment of the “circuit of culture,” has the ability to affect the other four. The starting point doesn’t matter, as long as each “circuit” is observed to rely on the others in order for a cultural meaning to emerge. For instance, in order for a product to sell, the identity of the consumer must be analyzed, for mass production to occur. Even though Stuart Hall takes power away from the producers, this model shows the importance of each circuit and how it relates to our society and media as a whole. The five moments of the “circuit of culture,” have to do with the overall audience reception. The meanings of each circuit have the ability to manipulate and influence ideological, emotional, and behavioral consequences. Each circuit, in communication, is required for the process to work as a whole, on the contrary, not one circuit can fully guarantee the next circuit in which it is communicated. This shows that Hall’s model cannot be proven to work in all cases.