What is the difference between encoding and decoding in the communication process?

Encoding refers to the creation of, or the production of, a message (something you are trying to communicate). Decoding refers to the listener, or audience, interpreting and deriving the meaning of that message. So, in a commercial for a breakfast cereal, the company that is trying to persuade you to buy it will create an ad and you will see or hear it on TV and radio. You will then interpret, and hopeful, understand, what has just been said in that ad. British communication scholar Stuart Hall is one of the best known proponents of the theory of encoding and decoding.