Exam prep instructions
EXAM PREP BLOG INSTRUCTIONS
Each week I will post 5 terms that have been discussed in our course. You are responsible for writing responses for 2 of them (ie. 2 per week). Write your responses as if you were writing the answers for an exam. Post your responses in the comments section under the appropriate term. Please try to have your responses posted before your tutorial begins on Monday/Tuesday.
If you cannot access the comments section to post your response, you must email me and I will send you an invite to the blog.
Participating in this exercise will account for 30% of your final participation grade. I will be posting 5 terms/week over the next 6 weeks, so by posting an adequate response for 2 terms will earn you 5%/week.
If you have any questions, please email me at jhandreae@gmail.com
This exam prep exercise in no way guarantees that all or any of these terms will appear on the final exam. You are responsible for familiarizing yourself will all of the terms relevant to this course.
In the works of Stuart Hall he was mostly concerned about, how people were very critical on what they read on the newspaper, and accepting on what they saw on television. However what the public is short of knowing is how people choose what stories to cover, how to edit it, and frame it, so it appears as though it is 'real footage' or 'real news stories'. A 'Sign' is a way of representing something. For example the image of a cow, could mean a literal sign of the animal, or it could be a symbol for meaning large. The signifier is the representation, the form. The signified, representation is the content. Both forming the element of semiotics. For example a stop sign. The physical shape which is the octagon is the signifier, and the actual meaning of 'stop' is the signified. In relation to course work, Girl, Interrupted involved characters with complex mental conditions, and at the beginning Kaysen would signify her condition as being crazy, insane, loony, instead of what the condition really was. People associate words to other words, and meanings with what they see or hear , just like watching TV, people are not being critical, they are just associating what they know to what they see or hear.
ReplyDeleteThe signified is what's represented by the signifier (in other words, the meaning it communicates). For example, the word "cow" (which is a symbolic sign) is an arbitrary sign that English people understand. It is separate from the actual, physical cow, yet the word itself is a signifier. A photo or video of a cow would be an iconic sign, where the idea and the representation are much more closely connected but still are not the same. The signified would be actual cows themselves; yet, even with something as seemingly straightforward and simple as a cow, the meanings drawn from the signifier can be varied and nuanced depending on a variety of factors. Stuart Hall touches on the idea of these signifiers and how different meanings are perpetuated and derived from them; he states how, for example, when we watch television, we intake the images and sounds without consciously acknowledging that they are artificially and deliberately constructed to convey certain messages, instead accepting their meanings as the reality of the world. This relates to the idea that the signified is nuanced and varies from person to person, culture to culture, etc. For example, a black cat in North America is a signifier of bad luck and white cats are seen as neutral, whereas in England a white cat is considered bad luck and a black cat good luck. This shows how the same signifier can carry different meanings across different societies.
ReplyDeleteFirst and foremost, a sign is the whole that results from the association of the signifier with the signified. The signified is the form in which the sign takes, and the signified is the content or what is represented. This is ‘signification,’ the process of reading signs – anything we can read meaning into. With this, Stuart Hall employs the structuralist distinction between ‘denotation,’ a sign’s literal meaning, and ‘connotation,’ a sign’s associated meaning. For example, a sweater is, or denotes, an object that is worn; at the connotative level, the meaning of a sweater changes depending on the context, as people can interpret as simple couture, or can relate it to something like Autumn walks. He also notes that the visual discourse of television translates reality into two-dimensional planes, and thus cannot be confused with the referent it signifies. Language and sign systems do not reflect, but rather structure and construct. The news that appears on TV, for example, is specifically chosen for coverage, then edited and framed before it airs. This is where the encoder sends a message out to decoders, wherein the process of encoding can be likened to production, and decoding is consumption, as Stuart Hall states. What is important to remember is that audiences are active consumers, and we all interpret messages differently. For example, consumers who hold a dominant-hegemonic position decode a particular media message in terms of the preferred meaning of the dominant social order, whereas the ones who hold an oppositional position recognize but reject the dominant meanings of a media message.
ReplyDeleteSignifier is a sign that represents a something specific, and Signified is what the sign represents – so what the meaning of the specific sign is. Stuart Hall’s take on the signs includes denotation and connotation. Denotation is the more literal meaning of a sign, for example if a person sees the word “cow”, they instinctively think of the animal. Whereas, connotation is the specific meaning of the sign, where the person thinks of the “cow” as large, not the actual animal itself. Another statement that Stuart Hall makes is that with the involvement of encoders and decoders, the message that comes across on a television set, or radio may be interpreted differently. On TV, the final content is usually edited by the “encoder” or the person who creates the message. The “decoder” or the audience then interprets the message, and each person can interpret the message differently. The way in which the message is interpreted is mainly dependant on our background, for example, our cultural background, childhood, and morals all play a factor in decoding the message.
ReplyDeleteThe combination of signified and signifiers result in a sign. A sign must have both a signified and signifier. The signifier is the form in which the sign takes. The signifier is the associated meaning. A sign on the corner of a street says “Stop” the sign itself is the signifier, the concept of having to come to a complete halt once approaching the sign is the signified. Hall uses the terms “denotation” and “connotation”. He explains that the idea of “denotation” is the signs literal meaning and that “connotation” is the relevant and particular meaning. Media involves a lot of encoded messages, which are left open to decoders whom have many different interpretations. There are many factors that may effect the way in which we decode a message, including our gender, race, social status, background, etc.
ReplyDeleteSignifier is a sign which represents something. Stuart Hall speaks of how people virtually accept whatever they see or read as reality. He’s concerned with the fact that people do not understand that what makes the paper is deliberately chosen, framed and edited but it still appears to be raw and real news but it’s not. How this correlates with Signifier is things like the media take signs and purposely attempts to sway the ways in which these signs are accepted and signified. For example, a picture of a cow is a symbolic sign that English people understand but it is separate from an actual physical cow but the word is still a signifier. Videos and pictures of a cow is the closest thing to an actual cow but still there are differences. In reality “signified” varies from person to person. We all gather our own meanings from different signifiers and we should acknowledge this instead of feeding into whatever different institutions are attempting to tell us.
ReplyDelete