CHAPTER 4

Evaluating Messages
and/or Images
Language is inevitable; as culture
changes, so does language.
Incorrect Versus correct Language Use
 What is the correct language use?
- Prescriptivists equate correctness to strict
observance of the rules of grammar. They believe
that standard English is synonymous with correct
English.
In all cultures, the inability to speak what is
acceptable as correct English has negative
consequences.
Language A: “People be thinking teenagers
don’t know nothing.”
Language B: “People think teenagers don’t
know anything.”
The Text or Message

”message” (or text) refers to any recorded

message (writing, audio-recording, audio
and video recording) that is physically
dependent of its sender or receiver.
The Text or Message
“medium” may include broad categories
as speech and writing or print and
broadcasting, or relating to specific
technical forms within the mass media
(radio, television, newspapers,
magazines, books, photographs, films,
and records) or the media of
interpersonal communication
(telephone, letter, fax, email, video-
conferencing, computer-based chat
systems)
To best create and produce a quality
text, you need to consider the text type,
its purpose, and its intended audience.
The three factors have implications for
the structure, language, and presentation
of the text (Hoadley & Nixon, 2017).
Structure – refers to how information is
organized
Language – the means by which the
information is expressed verbally and/or
nonverbally. The formality of vocabulary,
grammar, and mechanics needed are dictated
by the register you are to use.
Presentation – covers the layout, format,
length, oral delivery, spelling, and referencing.
Semiotics and Text Analysis
Semiotics
– concerned with “everything that can be
taken as a sign” (Eco,1976)
- involves “the study of anything which
stands for something else; in a semiotic
sense, signs take the form of words,
images, sounds, gestures, and objects.”
(Chandler, 2017)
 Signs consist signifiers (sounds and images)
and signifieds (concepts)
 Signification (the relationship between the
signifier and the signified)
Ex.
If you hear the sound the sounds represented
by the letters “b-o-y” or a picture of a boy
(signifier), you think of the concept “male
child” (signified). Together, the sounds of the
word and the concept created by the sounds
form a sign.
Semiosis – the process by which a culture
produces signs and/or assign meaning to
signs.
A cultural group’s use of second language
or foreign language will be greatly affected
by that group’s culture
It resulted to funny mistranslations
Ex.
Pepsi’s slogan in the 70’s “Come alive with
the Pepsi Generation”
Germany: Rise from the grave with Pepsi
China: Pepsi brings your ancestors back
from the grave
Similar errors can be found all over the
world: in menus, signages,
advertisements, instructions, and so on.
1. Airline ticket office, Copenhagen: “We take
your bags and send them in all directions.”
2. A menu in Vienna: “Fried milk, children
sandwiches, roast cattle, and boiled sheep.”
3. A sign on a car in Manila: “Car and owner for
sale”
4. Athens hotel: “Visitors are expected to
complain at the office between the hours of 9
and 11A.M. daily”
5. Hotel elevator, Paris: “Please leave your
values at the front desk.”
6. Hotel in Japan: “You are invited to take
advantage of the chambermaid.”
 Mistranslations are not limited to written
language. To ensure correct translation ,
employ services of a qualified translator.
Mass Media and
Multimodal Texts
Mass Media
Refers to types of communication that
uses technology to reach a wide
audience.
FIVE TYPES:
1. PRINT
2. RADIO
3. REGULAR BROADCAST TELEVISION
4. CABLE TELEVISION
5. TELECOMMUNICATION
Multimodal
 A text is “multimodal” when it combines
two or more of the five semiotic systems.
1. Linguistic or textual system
- vocabulary, structure, and grammar
2. Visual system
- color, vectors, viewpoints in still and
moving images
3. Audio system
- volume, pitch, and rhythm of music and
sound effects
4. Gestural system
- movement, speed, and stillness in
facial expression and body language
5. Spatial system
- proximity, direction, position of layout,
organization of objects in space.
Examples:
A picture book
A webpage
A live ballet performance

Many newspapers and some other mass

media news outlet are multimodal
because they now have webpages.
Online newspapers are very different from
printed newspapers.

1. The internet allows “hypermedia”

2. Online newspapers are more personal
because they target particular
audiences.
3. Interaction levels are increased
4. Traditional life span of information is
changing; people expect up-to-minute
updates
5. Online newspapers are synchronous
6. Electronic publication format makes
[online newspapers] susceptible to
immediate modifications and changes
wherever they are received.

Twitter Citizen journalist

New ways of doing news

Seatwork (1/2 crosswise) SURE? YES NAMAN.

1. Why are television and internet

considered multimodal?
2. What is the meaning of “online
newspapers are more personal because
they target particular audiences”?
3. Why is it difficult for us to know what
news to trust on twitter?
PS. ANSWER DIRECTLY