(Material) Media Society - Lecture for week #8 - Updated.pdf
- 1. 1 Media & Society Course Lecture for week #8 Prepared by Dr. Yolla Ahmed Social Inequality, Social positions, and Media Representations Introduction In today's lecture, we will cover: Ø What is a media text? Ø Analyzing media texts Ø The theory of signification (semiotics)
- 2. 2 Introduction In order to be in grasp of the content of this lecture, which is dedicated to Representation (with applied case studies related to inequality later on), we need to understand what a Media text is. Introduction What is a Media text? Definition Media texts have a variety of forms both within media (publishing newspapers to novels) and across media (the front page of a website to the titles of a TV programme). This variety is important when trying to study the production of meaning and the process of influence (in media texts).
- 3. 3 Some researchers argue that spoken and non-verbal forms should be included along with written forms, in studying media texts. Even a model's smile on a magazine cover would be considered as a part of the media text, because it is a material signifier. Example
- 4. 4 In studying media texts, some researchers suggest that we should take into consideration the reader's prior knowledge and expectations. It is true that the text structures the meanings that are conveyed through it but the reader's prior knowledge and expectations come into play too. The modern consumer of the media is a reader of many different kinds of text, which inter-relate and feed off one another.
- 5. 5 In addition to what has been Said Previously, it is important for analysis purposes that you learn about: • Semiotics (the theory of signification) The objective of analyzing signification is to determine meaning—or a set of meanings.
- 6. 6 The two approaches concerned with signification are Semiotics and Semiology. Both mean the study of signs and symbols and their use or interpretation.
- 7. 7 Researchers in semiotics come from varied areas, such as communication, linguistics, anthropology, film study, literature, and marketing etc. What is a sign?
- 8. 8 In semiotic theory, a sign is anything that stands for something else—that is, a sign stands for an object or concept The Swiss linguist Ferdinand de Saussure, who is known as the father of European semiology, expressed this relationship in the following way:
- 9. 9 This is the marriage between a sound or an image—called a signifier (Sr)—and the concept for which it stands (or content)—called the signified (Sd). Example: The photo/ image of a hand is the signifier and the signified is the meaning of the hand (part of the body at the end of an arm). Both the signifier and the signified constitute the sign.
- 10. 10 The signifier is the form in which the content is expressed—the word, sound, picture, smell, or gesture.
- 11. 11 Saussure explained the closeness of these relationships with the metaphor of a sheet of paper illustrates. He said the paper itself was like the sign—one side of the sheet being the signified and the other side being the signifier.
- 12. 12 At the same time, around the beginning of the 20th century, as Saussure was developing his ideas of semiosis (the process of signification in language or literature)…
- 13. 13 American Charles S. Peirce was working on his model of knowledge and the way reality is represented in mind and thought. For him, the sign is equivalent to Saussure's signifier and the object is similar to Saussure's concept (signified). The interpretant is the idea evoked in a person's mind by the sign.
- 14. 14 An association or personal experience, for example, contributes to my interpretation of the word tree.
- 15. 15 I see aspens in the fall turning gold. Someone else might see a new spring green seedling being planted … … a brilliant red/orange maple in the fall, or a stand of evergreens against a backdrop of snow.
- 16. 16 Saussure's work was based in linguistics and is important to critical analyses of how meaning operates in texts. Peirce's work, which became known as semiotics (although he never used that term), is even broader because of its epistomological focus (relating to the theory of knowledge).
- 17. 17 It is marked by a concern for the important role signs play in the way we know things and think about things. The sign relationship
- 18. 18 Important to both Saussure and Peirce is the: question of how does something come to stand for something else or how is the signifier connected to the signified?
- 19. 19 Peirce, for example, used another triad— iconic, indexical, and symbolic—to explain the nature of the relationships he identified for signs: Peirce's Three Types of Sign Relationships Nature of Relationship Example Iconic Resembles by mimesis— i.e., "looks like" A photograph; a portrait Indexical An indicator of the existence of something Smoke to fire; symptom to disease Symbolic "Stands for" is understood through convention A flag for a country; a mascot for a team Mimesis refers to the attempt to imitate or reproduce reality.
- 20. 20 In the case of the photo of the singer Sinead O’connor, the triad could be explained as follows:
- 21. 21 Iconic dimension: the photo depicts the Pope as he is. Indexical: His clothes indicate his religious status. Symbolic: He represents a religious authority. Sinead is rebelling not against him but against any kind of religious authority. At the heart of a theory of signs lies also the difference between connotative and denotative meanings
- 22. 22 Semiologist Roland Barthes (1968) and cultural studies theorist Stuart Hall (1999) have extended the concepts of signified (Sd) and signifier (Sr) to include connotation and denotation. Denotation is the direct, specific, or literal meaning we get from a sign. It is a description or representation of the signified—that is, language (or visual) specifically about the object.
- 23. 23 Connotation is meaning that is evoked by the object, that is, what it symbolizes on a subjective level. In Barthes' work, connotation reflects cultural meanings, mythologies, and ideologies.
- 24. 24 It is derived from past experiences or repeated associations between a sign and its object. Denotation is the starting point; as the understanding of meaning shifts then to the second Level.
- 25. 25 At this point, connotation takes over and delivers a richer experience of the meaning by engaging Peirce's interpretants. See you next week!
- 26. Media and Society Course – Dr. Yolla Ahmed (Material for week #8) Checklist for lecture of week #8 1- I understand what a media text is, and that there is a variety of media texts (across, and within media). 2- I understand that spoken and non-verbal forms should be taken into consideration along with the readers’ prior knowledge, and expectations. 3- I understand the aim of the semiotics, and know what the other word used to describe the same thing as semiotics, is. 4- I understand that researchers who have contributed to semiotics come from different fields of specialization. 5- I know how to define signs from Ferdinand de Saussure's perspective, and what the metaphor of a paper stands for. 6- I understand that signifiers refer to words, pictures, smells, and gestures. Signifiers are all about the form of the content. 7- I understand how Charles Pierce defined a sign, and what was the terminology he used. 8- I understand what an interpretant means as Pierce has defined it. 9-I understand what the three types of sign relationships refer to (iconic, indexical, and symbolic). 10- I understand the difference between denotative and connotative meanings. Decide whether the following statements are (True) or (False): 1- Media texts are limited to written texts, excluding hence spoken, and non-verbal forms. ( ) 2- The modern consumer of the media is a reader of many different kinds of text, which inter- relate and feed off one another. ( ) 3- Semiotics and semiology are useful for the study of signs and symbols and their use or interpretation. ( ) 4- The photo/ image of a hand is the signifier and the signified is the meaning of the hand. ( ) 5- The signifier is the word in which the content is expressed, and does not include sound, picture, smell, or gesture.( ) 6- The indexical relationship in a “signification system” is understood through convention.( ) 7- In Roland Barthe’s work, In Barthes' work, connotation reflects cultural meanings, mythologies, and ideologies. ( )