SOW-CWB2023 Media Content
Summary of lectures 2019/2020
Radboud University Nijmegen
Lecture 1:
There is no such thing as THE content. Content is defined through the
perspective that is used.
Central topics:
- Different views on media content based on different theoretical
perspective in Communication Science.
- Rhetorical view will emphasize other elements of ‘the’ content than
a cultural view or a framing point of view.
Differences in scientific angle/perspective will lead to different readings of
the text and differences in operationalization of theoretical concepts
(content).
At Radboud University Communication science shows three dominant
viewpoints:
- Persuasion (e.g. advertisements)
- Culture (culture specific outlooks on reality)
- Information (journalism, news)
These outlooks influence the conceptualization of content.
As a reader of content, you see specific things and add meaning to it.
Content is defined by the theoretical perspective of a producer and a
reader. And, every ‘text’ is a representation of reality.
By representing reality in a specific way, specific knowledge about reality
is produced (encoded). Next, the recipient will make a specific reading of
the text (decoding) from a particular perspective.
Differences in point of view creates different conceptualizations of content.
That is why there is no such thing as THE content or THE message or THE
reality, because everything is dependent on the perspective of the
producer and reader.
What is said about the nature of media content?
First part of course: media content is composed out of representations.
Representation Theory: by using sign and sign-systems (semiotics)
we gain knowledge about reality through representation. All we do in
life is using signs. Semiotics is the key element to know something
about the world, and also science itself is a semiotic system.
Second part: in the end we will apply representation theory on science
itself. If you do research, you are using signs.
,Baran & Davis: symbols mediate and structure all our experience because
they structure our ability to perceive and interpret what goes on around
us.
We can only perceive what we can grasp in signs. If we do not have signs
for something, we are not perceiving it. Representation produces a reality.
Not THE reality, but A reality. In order to add meaning to a sign, you must
be familiar with the code: accumulated meanings that previous
generations have captured, preserved and passed on in the forms of signs.
A well-known sign-system for example are the traffic signs: a sign with a
round red border means that something is prohibited.
Signification:
o Knowledge of grammar of a sign system (semiotic system) =
being familiar with a code system
o Selecting important signs and neglect other signs
o Interpretation: creating specific knowledge
Selecting different signs creates different meanings.
Encoding process: signs and sign systems represent reality in a specific
way, based on a perspective and in doing so it creates specific knowledge
about the world we live in = Representation of reality produces
representation for reality.
Lecture 2
Differences in perspective give a different view on content. Different
elements of the text are turned into signs, in order to signify a part of the
‘text’. In that way, a specific interpretation of the content is created.
If you are interested in a specific part of content, then you see those
specific things and block out other things. Specific things are turned into
signs. For example, if you want to know how many men opposed to
women actors are playing in ‘friends’, you see the gender of the actors,
and you do not necessarily notice where they are standing/what kind of
hair colour they have.
You signify a part of the object. You create a specific and very limited
representation of reality. -> Representation Theory
We must create signs, to create knowledge about media content as well.
The availability of content is immense. For example, in a picture: what is
on the picture, what kinds of lenses are used, quality, are filters being
used?
We make things present again by making signs: symbols, and a sign
system (codes): Representation Theory.
,There exists a representation FOR reality and a representation OF reality.
The representation of reality, guides to the representation for reality. For
example, if you are looking for Intratuin on a map, and the logo is on the
map, then when you drive towards it and see the logo, you will think; hey I
recognize this from the map. It creates your perception of reality. So,
every representation OF reality, creates a representation FOR reality.
Media content is about representation and reality. Intratuin itself, as a
shop, will not be on the map, but it’s sign, that’s to say its representation,
stands in for reality. Therefore, all media content mediates reality.
The key in cultural studies is how we make sense of ourselves and our
social world: Baran & Davis, 2015.
What strikes most in this picture: emphasis is put on characteristics of
fertility: breasts, thighs, vagina, belly. And, no emphasis on head and
arms. Explanation for that is that those characteristics were important in
the culture of 23000 years ago (when it was made).
Discourse: a language or system of representation that has
developed socially in order to make and circulate a coherent set of
meanings about an important topic area. > it makes sense in a
certain kind of society.
Most of the times people rarely create images of the body that are realistic
> they have a perspective in which specific representations dominate over
others, which has to do with what is important in their cultures.
Representations create a view or maintain a view on the world or on
ourselves. James Carey: communication is a symbolic process
whereby reality is produced, maintained, repaired and transformed.
Photos of models; representation of models, that all look the same >
representation OF reality. Creates that we all want to look like that:
representation FOR reality.
Signs (symbols) add meaning to reality and create a specific view on
reality.
Research about hurricanes; if they have been given a female name,
people tend to think they are less destroying.
, Representation OF; female name, creates representation FOR
reality; the idea that the hurricane is not so dangerous.
Media content, as a representation of reality, has influence on how we see
reality. In that way, media content creates a representation FOR reality.
Representation Theory is closely related to the idea of social construction
of reality (Berger & Luckman, 1966). However, the focus is on the
symbolic character of representations.
We share representations and we take them for granted. In a culture we
share the meanings that go without saying, we don’t really observe it, it is
something you notice automatically.
For example, a tall man with a smaller woman in a movie, ‘feels’ better
than the other way around, although probably you are not actively
observing the heights of people in movies.
There is a relation between:
o what is: ‘being’ (empirical reality)
o and the way we know it: ‘knowing’ > what is signified by
representations.
We are unable to grasp the meaning of all there is. When you are
describing something, you are not representing all the meanings it has.
We construct reality by using signs. You know the empirical reality only by
the sign you attach to make significance. Meaning is not in the content;
the receiver creates meaning by using signs.
There is no such thing as a pure, uncoded, objective experience of a
real and objective world. The latter exists but its intelligibility
depends on codes of meaning or systems of signs, like language
(Strinati, in McQueen 1998).
Semiotics: the study of sign process.
o How do we signify reality by the use of signs or how do we
know the world by using signs?
If every sign produces a specific knowledge about reality, it makes it
interesting to research what signs exist. In order to think, we need signs
and by using them we structure experiences.
Every representation has a set of signs and every sign comes with a
certain perspective on reality connected to the purpose the content has.
For example, a map of the world, is a representation OF the world which
produces a specific knowledge about the earth, which is the
representation FOR reality. A map of the world can be drawn in different
ways and in that way, we create different ideas about reality.
Name giving is also creating a reality. For example, president Trump calls
his opponent names, and creates a representation OF and For reality. OF:
the name, For: the (negative) idea that people get about opponents.
Signs are part of a structured system > signs systems, which are ruled
by grammatical rules. Saussure’s legacy: semiology. Peirce’s legacy:
semiotics. Peirce claims that if we use signs over and over again, in the
