SIGN, the REFERENT, and the HUMAN MIND It helps us to see how signs and symbols are used, what they mean, and how they are organized Media messages consist of a blend of symbols that are organized spatially and chronologically to create an impression, transmit an idea, or elicit a meaning in an audience
The Use of Semiotics
A tool for examining the impact of mass
media Media content is important, and it is a product of the use of signs Focus on the ways producers create signs and the ways audience understand them Signs take on special significance in the media, and the media shape how signs function to us.
Jean Baudrillard & the Semiotics of
Media Signs have become increasingly separated from the object they represent and that The media have propelled this process to the point where nothing is real
Stages of signs
Symbol order: a sign is a simple representation
of an object or condition Counterfeits: signs actually produced new meaning that were not necessarily a natural part of the experience of that which was signified (ex.: status, wealth, & prestige were connected to things because of how they were signified) Production: machines were invented to take place of humans, making objects independent of any human use of signifiers
Stages of signs
Simulation: signs no longer represent
BUT CREATE- our reality. Simulation determines who we are & what we do
Rather than have genuine communication
involving interaction among people, the media dominate our lives with information that forms what we perceive to be genuine experience but that is far removed from the natural order of things
The Role of Media in
Simulation
Fostering our commodity culture. The simulated
environment tells us what we want it forms our tastes, choices, preferences, & needs Consumption takes on value in and of itself. That we are consuming becomes most important, not what we are consuming or what we actually want. Possession is more important than use. Our lives are full of objects that have no real use, make a life of pure symbolicity
The Role of Media in Simulation
Media messages are filled with carefully
designed symbolic images formulated to influence individuals and society. Baudrillards envisions a malleable mass of people in which societywide depersonalized relations replace individuality, community life, and ethnic identity