Quick Guide to Semiotics - Barthes

Semiology deals with anything that stands for something else. It is the study of signs and symbols as elements of communicative behavior.

Sign = Signifier + signified

This equation is perhaps the easiest way to remember what a sign is. The signifier is the physical form a sign takes, and the signified is the concept behind that physical form. For example, the bathroom door sign is made up of the stick image of a man, and that image connotes that this door is for males to enter. Combining both the signifier and the signified, the sign is complete and we understand it to be a washroom for males.

A sign is not alone, it is part of a system. The study of semiotic systems is called taxonomy. 

Symbolic Interactionism - Mead/Blumer

George Herbert Mead, a professor at the University of Chicago who never published his theory while alive. Blumer is one of his students who believed in his work and compiled it, added to it, and published it after Mead's death.

The theory of symbolic interactionism is an interpersonal theory, based on three core principles: meaning, language and thought.

Meaning is the construction of social reality. We act differently to people and things based on the meanings that we assign to them. Once people define a situation as real, the consequences are real as well.

Language is the source of meaning. Meaning is negotiated through interactions which require language. People have the power to name things, but names and symbols are just signs with no inherent relation to what they point to. For instance, the letters dog, and the sound of the word dog has nothing to do with the actual creature. There is no link except for the language that we created. By communicating with other people and creating words for objects we create a universe of discourse.

Thought is when we take the role of the other. This process is called minding and is an inner conversation, where we sort things out in our head and give things meaning. Unlike other animals, humans have the ability to take the role of the other and predict the outcome of what they say and do.

Another related principle is the self. We can only find ourselves by taking the role of the other, by imagining what we look like in someone else's perspective. This is called looking-glass self. The self is always changing and before a person can conscious of the self, they need to belong to a community. The self is a combination of unorganized and unpredictable aspects of life (the "I") and the image of yourself seen through the looking-glass self and people reactions to your behavior and speech (the "me").

Rhetoric - Aristotle

Rhetoric was viewed by Aristotle as a tool for public speaking which could be used for good or evil. Rhetoric is a form of speaking and persuasion that has been turned into something very formulaic, almost like a science. There are three types of speaking occasions/situations:

1. Epideictic speaking about praise or blame - Celebrating a wedding by giving speeches of praise
2. Deliberative speaking about future policy - A speech before a referendum on a city wide curfew
3. Forensic speaking is about innocence or guilt - based on past actions, a lawyer argues a clients innocence

Aristotle defined rhetoric as communication where one person addresses many, like during a speech. Rhetoric demonstrates existing truths instead of searching for new ones. It deals with probability and addresses specific practical questions. It is not the speaking style concerned with hashing out philosophical questions. 

There are three rhetorical proofs which persuasion is based on:

1. Logos - logical proof. What is argued in a speech.
2. Ethos - Ethical proof is how the speaker's personality is demonstrated through speech.
3. Pathos - Emotional proof. What the speaker is able to do to the emotions of the audience.

Logos can be presented two ways to an audience. The enthymeme is the first way and the strongest way to persuade because the speaker will leave out a generally accepted premise of his argument so the audience can fill that in themselves. Due to their own involvement in the deductive reasoning (moving from a global truth to one more specific), they believe in the argument more thoroughly. The second logical proof is when the speaker provides and example which allows the audience to make conclusions based on the examples provided.

Ethos is basically how credible the speaker is. This can depend on their apparent character, intelligence and goodwill. Aristotle was concerned with how a speaker did this in their speech but it is difficult for an audience to accept a speaker's credibility without looking at where they came from.

Pathos is concerned with how the speaker is able to get the audience emotionally involved. Anything from shame to anger, fear or confidence.

Aristotle also has another list to his theory of communicating, the five cannons of rhetoric.

1. Delivery - how naturally and persuasive the message is given.
2. Memory 
3. Style of speaking (Word choice, grammar, etc.)
4. Invention - drawing on examples and general knowledge
5. Arrangement - structure of a speech.

photo: Tilemahos Efthimiadis

The Shannon-Weaver Model of Communication

The model was created in 1948 by Claude Elwood Shannon, and published in Warren Weaver's book The Mathematical Theory of Communication. It takes a formulaic approach to describing how information if communicated. Below in a diagram that will help visualize Shannon's model which includes the information source, message, transmitter, signal, noise source, received signal, receiver, the message and destination.

Using an example will help you understand and remember the model. A radio advertisement for the television show Ugly Betty is drafted in a meeting room (information source), the created message are sent to a sound studio where sound bites and recordings are made distributed to radio stations (transmitters), the signal is sent and along the way, as it reaches listeners ears there are other distractions like car horns and people talking (noise), the sounds (signals) reach the listeners ears (receiver) who comprehends what is being said by decoding the sound bites and information. The message has reached its destination.

The medium is the message

A phrase by Canadian professor Marshall McLuhan in 1964. The phrase can seem a bit abstract but it is really simple to explain. A medium is a transmission tool for communication like a television, radio, or magazine. McLuhan suggests that the medium cannot be separate from the message, and the medium strongly influences how a message is received.

Imagine a television commercial where the message was the promotion of the show Ugly Betty. Then the audio from that TV commercial was played on the radio. A still frame taken from the original TV commercial was also placed in a magazine with some information from the TV commercial written on the photograph. Each message is  the same on the surface, but with each different mode of transmission, or medium, the message changes and has a different effect. The television commercial offers pictures and sounds and give you a sample of what the show is like, while at the same time offering useful information such as what time the show is on and what channel. The radio offers the same information but only through audio, so the visual cues are not there, and there is less immediacy because you cannot switch channels and watch reruns of the show on another station. The print ad changes the message yet again by being just another glossy page in a magazine filled with other advertisements, but perhaps it would stand out by putting striking Betty Suarez among airbrushed models.

For a better understanding of this phrase, see Shannon and Weaver's model of communication.


photo: Alex Castella

The Centre for Contemporary Cultural Studies

The research centre was established in 1964 by Richard Hoggart at Birmingham University and focused on the study of media, youth, and subcultures. There was a wide range of researchers that made up the CCCS, each bringing their own interdisciplinary skills to the study of media. Different approaches were taken such as Marxist, post-structuralist, and feminist.

One of the many theories of the CCCS was that the new suburbs and new housing developments after the war allowed youth to take on new identities. These new identities were a way of making their way back to their working class identities. Post-war consumerism gave youth the opportunity to break from their previous class identities, there was suddenly a with range of consumer options made available.

Another milestone was the shift from looking at youth as delinquents to actually studying social effects and how youth acted and reacted. Looking beyond the previous view of youth as problematic to understand how they function. The limits with the CCCS's studies were that they only looked at the mass media and ignored the local environments.

Some criticisms of the CCCS were that the researchers focused on only the working white male subcultures. They romanticized forms of resistance and gave all of their attention to the subcultures that stood out the most in appearance, actions and vocals.

Five Facts

• CCCS stands for the Centre for Contemporary Cultural Studies, founded by Richard Hoggart in 1964 at the University of Birmingham
• Research focus was interdisciplinary but focused on media studies, including youth, subcultures, and popular culture in the post-war period. 
• Took a sociological approach to studying youth and how they function rather than viewing them as delinquents
• Consumerism gave youth options and the ability to go back to their working class identities in the new suburbs and housing developments that were created after WWII. 
• CCCS was criticized for their emphasis on working class, white males, and romanticizing youth resistance. They ignored local environments and focused on the influence of mass media. 

(photo Elliot Brown)