Abstract
Stuart Hall’s encoding/decoding model is discussed in terms of CS Peirce’s theory of
the interpreter and interpretant. This historical semiotic window frames an example
to which the Hall model was applied in South Africa to oppose a military dirty tricks
campaign that involved a Supreme Court case brought against the Minister of
Defence by the End Conscription Campaign (ECC) requiring him to cease his
disinformation against the ECC. The Minister’s own expert had proposed a
transmission model of communication that was defeated by the Peirce-Hall
combination. The author argues that the model can be massively strengthened when
combined with Peirceian semiotics.