How words and images signify and convery meaning

COM 103Dr. Pam Wilson

How do we communicate?

Spoken language Non-verbal communication:

– Facial expressions– Voice tone– Gestures and body language

Written communication Still images (photos, art) Moving images

Classic Communication Model

Another model (adding interference, or “noise”)

Interference hinders communication process

Communicator’s self-interference—lack of clear expression

Channel interference—causes distortion

Environmental interference—distractions in receiver’s surroundings

Receiver interference—when the receiver (listener, reader, watcher) obstructs process through selective attention, exposure or perception

How does mass communication (media)

change this model? Differences in time

and space between sender and receivers

Introduces technologies into the process

Interpersonal often becomes one-to-many

Limited range of CHANNELS

Interpersonal channels include

simultaneous: Spoken language Facial expressions Tones of voice, non-linguistic

utterances, energy in voice (e.g. excitement, dread, fear)

Gestures and body language Possibly also written language

(writing on blackboard, power point)

Media communication

Limits that multi-channel experience (removes ability to see and hear and interpret gestures, etc.)

Media communication process is not simultaneous (sending and receiving separated in time and space)—so feedback is delayed or non-existent

e.g., broadcast communication, film, newspapers, magazines, web pages

Semiotics: study of how signs (words, images,

gestures) signify meaning Meanings are ENCODED and

DECODED Interpretation varied from receiver

to receiver, but we are trained to “read” codes by our culture

Analysis of visual systems of representation as well as language and sounds

Questions for Semiotics

How do people communicate with each other?

How does meaning (thoughts, feelings, attitudes, beliefs, visions, ideas) get encoded into messages?

That is, how does the communicator (the “sender”) “package” those ideas, thoughts and feelings into a message that is communicated using various channels?

How do these messages get physically transferred from person to person?

How do these messages get mentally “transferred” from the mind of one person to the mind(s) of other person(s)?

How does a person on the receiving end “unpackage” (decode) the thoughts, feelings, attitudes, beliefs, visions, ideas?

After “unpackaging” them, now does that person make sense of them or assign meaning to them? (interpretation)

If there are opportunities for response, feedback and interaction, how then do the participants in the communication exchange choose to interact in order to negotiate those meanings and act upon them?

Semiotics

American philosopher & logician Charles Sanders Peirce (1839-1914)

Founded “semiotics” as the scientific study of signs and sign processes– semiosis was the process of creating meaning

Peirce

In 1907 he defined semiosis as "action, or influence, which is, or

involves, a cooperation of three subjects, such as a sign, its object, and its interpretant.“

Peirce’s semiotics

Sign= a signifier or symbol– Three kinds of sign: icon, index, symbol

Object =physical thing that a sign stands for

Interpretant=concept of the meaning in the mind of the person doing the interpreting

Saussure’s semiologie

Swiss linguist, Ferdinand de Saussure (1857-1913)

Course in General Linguistics, his lectures published in 1915 after his death by two of his students

Dyadic (two-part) model for how we use signs to signify meaning

process of signification in a sign system or code

sign = signifier + signified signified is a concept (Peirce’s

interpretant); referent is the object in reality (Peirce’s object)

Signs are usually arbitrary

Sign or code SYSTEMS Depth beneath the surface:

underneath the surface are hidden generative mechanisms (rules, formulas, etc.) that are organized and patterned

GRAMMAR is the deep system for language

But there are systems for non-linguistic codes as well—part of each culture

Culture is a signifying system like language

Roland Barthes (1915-1980)

French cultural theorist analysis of images as signs that are

loaded with meaning, both denotative and connotative

Especially pertinent to study visual culture: art, photography, advertising, popular culture and media

TWO LEVELS OF MEANING (Roland Barthes)

Denotative: literal, descriptive meaning, providing documentary evidence of objective circumstances

Connotative: culturally specific meanings that rely on the cultural and historical context of the image and its viewer’s lived, felt knowledge

Barthes’ famous example –Paris Match cover

Barthes and the image

Signifier= the image

1st level signification: denotation– (African boy in uniform saluting)

2nd level signification: connotation or myth– Young African colonial subjects of France

proudly and happily serve in the French military—an ideological statement

Barthes’ concepts

Myth = cultural values and beliefs that are expressed at the level of connotation

the hidden set of rules and conventions through which meanings are made to seem universal and natural

(rather than culturally or historically specific)

Semiotics and media

vocabulary based on analogies with language and reading:

a TV documentary, a radio play, a Madonna song, a poster at a bus stop are all texts.

users of these texts are referred to as readers

the vocabulary of film the grammar of TV documentaries, etc.

For the following pictures, if the image is the signifier…

What is the signified (concept)? What is the referent (real

corresponding object)? What does the image denote (first-

level signification)? What does the image connote

(second level signification)?

Images have different purposes

http://justpaste.it/2p8 (Advertising images) Images from photojournalism

Nick Ut,Vietnam Napalm

1972Associated Press

Jeff Widener, AP

Tiananmen Square, BeijingJune 5, 1989

Charles Porter, IV Oklahoma City

BombingApril 19, 1995

Dorothea LangeMigrant Mother;

Nipomo, California1936