We do not see the world, rather we are taught by representations of the world about us to conceive of it in a culturally acceptable manner.
Sander Gillman
What's in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet.
William Shakespeare
We don't just borrow words; on occasion English has pursued other languages down alley ways to beat them unconscious and rifle their pockets for new vocabulary.James D. Nicoll
Today: Making meaning
Key words: linguistic relativity, semiotics, sign, signifier, signified, denote, connote
Language
o Lived experience, identity, window into cultures
o Can be used to support existing ideological structures.(see Althusser)
o Hegemonic model: ruling classes are able to rule by ideas and culture rather than by force. Rule by consent.
Ideology & media
o Media communicate ideas
o Media represent outside reality
o All texts are produced by people
o All people who produce them have different view points
o All texts present a point of view
o Audiences make sense (meanings) w/in existing knowledge
o All media are owned by somebody
Linguistic relativity
o Elements of culture
o Words
o Images
o Objects
Semiotics/Semiology (see Barthes)
o Study of signs and the way they work
o Language, images, written material, objects
3 Main Areas of study
1. Sign itself
-Form (signifier)
-Refers (signified)
-Recognized
Includes:
Visual Signs
Gestures
Dress codes
Traffic signs
Newspapers
TV programs
Relationships established by language & imagery
2. Codes/systems into which signs are organized (rules)
-Encoded
-Text is structure
3. Context
o Cultural relativity
C H U R C H
o The word
o Signs take the place of the actual object; meaning
o Signifier + signified= sign
o Cross + death = church
o polysemic
C A T (signifer & sign)
o Recognized by what it is and
o By what it's not:
&endash; Bat
&endash; Rat
&endash; Flat
o Letters /marks =
o Concept = signified
o Real cat? Mental related to real
o Feed the cat
Elements in media have:
o Dennotative-label something
o Connotative meanings-extra associations
o Myth (Barthes)