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Abstract
The pervasiveness of mass media and our dependence on it in contemporary
life suggest that special skills are necessary in order to understand the nature of media and its eects on the interpretation of issues and events that
happen outside the scope of an individuals experience. This essay explores
the need to develop a semiotic method designed to promote media literacy.
This method must be intuitive, use common language, and appeal to contemporary cultural values. The complexities of the language and concepts
of semiotics engender resistance. The purpose of this project is to work
toward a new taxonomy of semiotics by taking complex ideas from various
theories that can be adapted into a simple yet practical method for media
analysis.
Keywords:
1.
The conditions of contemporary society demand an educated, wellinformed population that can cope with high levels of information,
sophisticated media technologies, and critical thinking necessary to participate in democratic decision-making processes. Much of what people
claim to know is based on interpretations of information delivered by
mass media and understood from the context of an individuals knowledge and experience. Because mass communication technology is so accessible and easy to use, and its content appears to be clearly identied
as information or entertainment, people take for granted that they understand the meanings of various kinds of messages. The pervasiveness of
mass media and our dependence on it in contemporary life suggest that
special skills are necessary in order to understand the nature of media
Semiotica 1711/4 (2008), 239249
DOI 10.1515/SEMI.2008.076
00371998/08/01710239
6 Walter de Gruyter
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E. Gaines
and its eects on the interpretation of issues and events that happen
outside the scope of an individuals experience. Semiotics could be the
key.
Everyone is a semiotician by nature, but few people are aware of it. Semiotic theory assumes an innate capacity to process sense perception and
interpret the meanings of signs that motivate the everyday practices of
living. At dierent times and in various contexts, individuals negotiate
between their experience and cultural habits imposing established beliefs
and practices.
Meanings are veried by interpreting complex levels of perception and
experience, and understanding informs the practical fulllment of the
needs and desires of everyday life. A collective consciousness about what
is normal, correct, moral, and true circulate assumptions that become
part of a shared cultural reality. Cultural habits have powerful eects on
behavior yet, by denition, beliefs and opinions do not require sensible
evidence for verication. At the heart of scientic inquiry are categories
of experience that are demonstrated as sensible and reasonable. In the
end, reason is the key to knowledge and understanding. But if it is true
that much of what we know is information received through mass media,
how can we judge if mediated knowledge is based upon reliable evidence?
How can the authority of a given source of information be determined? In
order to understand whether a source of information is credible, a critical
method of media analysis is necessary.
The purpose of this project is to propose a method for critical thinking
and media literacy that attempts to work within the fabric of contemporary society. In order to be popular, a method must be intuitive, use common language, and appeal to contemporary cultural values. Recognizing
the problems implicit in a project aimed at developing a way to understand the world, my intention is to take richly complex ideas from various
theories of semiotics and adapt them into a simple yet practical method
for media analysis. As McLuhan explained Deweys belief, we learn
what we do (quoted in Postman and Weingartner 1969: 17). Since knowledge grows out of practice rather than through the study of theory, applying basic semiotic methods to the analysis of media representations could
prepare a new generation of media consumers to understand the assumptions, myths, and fallacies generated through media production processes.
While this method must be adapted to each specic question, a functional
knowledge of media analysis has a great potential for maturing over time
with practice.
A semiotic taxonomy of meaning would provide a systematic method
of classifying meaning-making processes that address the future necessities of media literacy. As mass media technologies continue to dominate
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2.
A descriptive semiotic language would provide clear categorical distinctions between various media of representation. Certainly this has already
been done, but diverse philosophical perspectives rely on exclusive language that is constantly evolving as theorists attempt to describe and
clarify concepts. The language used by semiotic scholars is necessarily exclusive because of the rich complex historical interdisciplinary continuity
between philosophy, science, linguistics, and the arts. A critical method of
media analysis that can be learned by younger people and the general
public is needed. The method must be simple yet logical to appeal to a
culture that takes media literacy for granted.
Semiotics explores the structures and processes of representing meaning
and the reasoning engendered through communication and interpretation. However, in the current competition with other ideas, semiotics
appears to be hidden behind everything from string theory to intelligent
design. Semiotics provides insight into the processes that establish the
meanings of things. Even among related elds such as cultural studies
and literary criticism, semiotics appears to be a background theory that
may help inform the other disciplines. In addition, textbooks for courses
in media analysis include sections on semiotics that tend to focus more on
theory than applied method (see Berger 1991; Vande Berg et al. 2004;
OSullivan et al. 2003; and Branston and Staord 1996). With semiotics
as a background theory focused on structure and codes, most analysis depends on social science theories like uses and gratications, cultivation
theory, or critical theories of Marxism, ideology, rhetoric, feminism, psychoanalytic, and other cultural studies approaches. By focusing more on
the semiotic, media analysts can explore the nature of signs, sign relations, and the processes that structure the messages through the various
forms and levels of mass communication. At best, however, textbooks
draw isolated theoretical perspective from semiotics to support other
methods.
Debates continue between adherents to the two major semiotic traditions emerging from the work of Peirce and Saussure. At the same time,
intellectual movements follow Burkes (1966) Language as Symbolic
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E. Gaines
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symbol or omen that infers a meaning. For example, the address from
the credit card receipt turned out to be a bridal shop that he interpreted
as a symbol meaning he should go home and get married. Cusack also
lists things that did not happen and states that the absence of signs is a
sign.
While this may be a statement of semiotic theory, the denitions
were designed to t the context of the lm and advance the plot by
building tension and concern for how the characters will overcome the
obstacles and resolve the romantic plot. Lacking a formal knowledge of
semiotics, the text still demonstrates a conceptual understanding of sign
logic.
A short piece from the New York Times Magazine uses the term semiotic disobedience to describe a video game. A video game was designed
to parody employees for the Kinkos copy service company and asks the
player to experience the indierence of these purple-shirted malcontents
rst-hand and consider the possible reasons behind their malaise (Walker
2006: 18). The term semiotic disobedience plays with phrase civil disobedience and suggests the game is intended to redene the meaning of
Kinkos (Walker 2006: 18). In a media world dominated by corporations
interested in creating and maintaining the image of a company, the individual can still decide how to understand slogans and names that contradict consumer experience. The video game constructs an articial myth
by making fun of what others assume to be true (Gaines 1998). The
Daily Show with Jon Stewart operates on the same principle when comedy writers convey news of current events with greater accuracy than conventional news programs even though they intend to create jokes for a
fake news program (Gaines 2006). So, while semiotic concepts may drive
the representations of ideas and information circulating through contemporary media, the language and science of semiotics is lost in its own sea
of language and theory.
Semiotics should eventually be recognized as a tool for understanding
media in the information age. But while literature and lms like The
Da Vinci Code and Ecos The Name of the Rose are clearly grounded
in semiotic principles, the language of semiotics is conspicuously absent. Reviews of both Ecos and Browns novels mention semiotics in
passing as do the occasional magazine article on fashion or other relevant aspects of popular culture. As Eco stated, . . . I consider myself a
university professor who writes novels on Sunday . . . I cannot expect to
have one million readers with stu on semiotics (Eco 2005). The signicance of semiotics is implied but discipline-specic language and theory
are avoided with popular audiences because they will not recognize its
practical use.
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3.
E. Gaines
Pragmatism, semiotic method, and language usage
245
sphere of popular culture, both the language and method must be eloquent without being confusing or counter intuitive. But as Sare explains,
coiners cant be choosers . . . usage determines meaning (2006: 16). The
acceptance of a neologism is reected by how people understand and use
a word. Again, consider the case for Peirces pragmatism. Peirce intended
a particular meaning when he rst used the term pragmatism in 1905
and subsequently coined the term pragmaticism to distinguish his intended meaning from how the original term was used by colleagues including James and Dewey (Deely 2001: 614625).
If language is potentially problematic because usage does not conform
to intended meanings, media technologies compound the issues with
additional layers of signifying processes. How is the world represented
through various forms of new media technology? Consumers read content
without due consideration of the eect of media to anonymously assume
authority of the authors of messages. Who determines what information
is relevant and how can consumers distinguish facts from opinions about
events and objects represented in the media?
4.
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are generally more inclined to look for results and avoid the eort necessary to acquire deep theoretical understandings.
I conclude by quoting Nathan Houser speaking about the future of
semioitcs: Perhaps at our present state of understanding of language and
semiosis we dont have any need for such complexity just as we didnt
once have any need for relativity physics but I predict that someday
we will face a use even a need for Peirces full theory. (Houser 1990:
xxxviii)
Notes
1. James Lipton, Inside the Actors Studio, Bravo Network, May 14, 2006.
2. Peter Chelsom (dir.), Miramax.
References
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Elliot Gaines (b. 1950) is associate professor at Wright State University Department of
Communication 3elliot.gaines@wright.edu4. His research interests include communication,
semiotics, and media. His publications include The semiotics of media images from Independence Day and September 11, 2001 (2001); Truth, semiotics, and the necessary ambiguity of
communication (2003); Interpreting India, identity, and media from the eld: Exploring the
communicative nature of the exotic other (2005); and Communication and the semiotics of
space (2006).