Semiotics

Semiotics: noun.  a general philosophical theory of signs and symbols that deals especially with their function in both artificially constructed and natural languages and comprises syntactics, semantics, and pragmatics 


Stereotypes can cut both ways. It is natural for humans when observing something to describe it and relate it to something they know.  But in relating, in categorizing, in stereotyping, people can show their ugliness and darkness.  Yet there are many people who deliberately chose to be stereotyped.  For example:

What would most people think about this man?  He's wearing a jacket and tie buisnessman and has an exspensive watch.  Most people would say he's a buisnessman, someone who holds authority and wants people to know that he can buy that watch and those cloathes.

Bikers right?  But how did you know that at first glance?  Was it the pins, hats, jacket, or beards?

Yet semiotics goes further than what people are wearing.  Body language plays a large role in what other people perceive, what signs they portray.  From the crossed arms, furrowed brow, and stuck out bottom lip you can tell that this girl is very upset with you.  This is a universal gesture, children do not need to be taught to pout, but many other gestures we use are learned and only apply to our culture such as the fist bump:

Here's another curiosity:

What does this mean?  If you're from the United States, you may not. This is the running man, an international sign for an exit.  Knowing this, it makes sense, and every aspect of the design was well thought out and debated.  Yet it never caught on here; for some reason the idea of our sign is so ingrained in our culture that we simply assume that anyone will recognize it, even though people live here who can't speak or read English.  It is because of semiotics that his isn't going away anytime soon:

Digital Native

Whenever I hear the term "digital native" i am reminded of a scene in An American Tale where all of the fresh immigrants pass through the customs house on Ellis Island, taking new names and in one sense, stepping from the Old World into the New.  You could see in their eyes the excitement, the apprehension, and the fear.


"I do not repeat DO NOT text nor do I receive text messages" says a recent Facebook post from my grandfather.  Yet in the same household my grandmother has been gushing about her new iPad she got this Christmas.  Funnily enough I don't remember any episodes where I truly felt that there was a "technology gap" between me and my parents.  Rather I've only really seen this with my grandparents, and it has been my parents who are explaining such "simple stupid" things such as changing the settings on a cell phone.  Might parents could perhaps be considered a prototype for the digital native.  My father is somewhat of a techno-phile who always kept his cell phone and computer up to date and is the best I've ever seen at pacman.  My mother, an accountant by degree, does what I can only assume to be black magic in Excel.  

Consummate Digital Native

As a digital native I've been well versed in the culture from an early age.  Perhaps it has something to do with inheriting the brain of an engineer and accountant, but I've always "got" technology.  Yet also I have some perspective of the proliferation of digital devices.  It was a big deal in elementary school when we got a computer lab.  I remember simple math games where we students had to solve multiplication problems to keep a cowboy from falling off a bucking bronco.  It was a strange feeling going to a middle school that wasn't ready to attempt to integrate new technologies and ideas of learning.  Their feeble attempt to show some type of "progress" was to put us in their computer lab, where the first thing a student learned (after how much "Type to Learn" sucked), was how to ALT+TAB between whichever game website wasn't blocked and what we were actually supposed to be doing.  In contrast to this high school was some revolution of beauty and light. Now every paper was required to be typed, double spaced, and perfect MLA format.  Teachers emailed and used powerpoints.  There was one exception to this, I wonder, like sometimes soldiers were with their guns, math teachers are buried with their overhead projects, especially with the way a few of mine clung to them so.

What is Media Literacy

"When Time magazine recognized You as its Person of the Year for 2006, acknowledging the accelerating success of online collaboration and interaction by millions of users around the world, it cited Wikipedia as one of several examples of Web 2.0 services, along with YouTube, MySpace, and Facebook. Some noted the importance of Wikipedia not only as an encyclopedic reference but also as a frequently updated news resource because of how quickly articles about recent events appear. Students have been assigned to write Wikipedia articles as an exercise in clearly and succinctly explaining difficult concepts to an uninitiated audience."
     --From Wikipedia's article about Wikipedia  (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia)


For most of human history "truth", the information that the majority of people accept as factual and real, has been defined by authorities.  The kings of old wielded their power deftly and absolutely; If by royal decree you, a peasent, were forced to move because the king declared your farm infertile, no protest would save you.  What the king says trumps what you say, you would be forced off your land no matter who's opinion was closer to reality because the king's was excepted and acted upon as "truth".  With the brief emergence of democracy and republicanism in antiquity, and its resurgence in the 17th and later centuries cultures saw a different type of "truth", the world defined by a few.  Though many societies were democratic, they were still hierarchal, and not every voice was heard.  Scholors, writers, inventors, doctors, and politicians held an aura of authority beyond the layman.  Also, it took money, time, and resources to create media such as newspaper and organize rallies and events.  The chasm between the layman and authority seemed only to grow with the invention of television and mass media.  In the U.S. the ogliopoly of NBC, CBS, and ABC served to create a soapbox of unprecedented porportions, yet the flow of information was in the hands of these few corporations, their trustees, emplyees, and owners.  While not neccesarily insidious, no organization that is not composed in entirety of the people can serve to voice their needs and opinions.  With the innovations and opening of the internet to the public in the 90's this changed.  In two decades a single person, armed with a voice and an internet connection can reach billions with his/her message.  With the dissolution of traditional media authorities (especially newsprint in the U.S.) we in the digital age have reached the logical conclusion of post-modern thought, "truth" as defined by the many.  It is against this backdrop that I cast the questions, "What is Media Literacy, and what can we do to become more Media Literate?"


Dr. David Considine of Appalachian State University defines Media Literacy as "The ability to access, analyze, evaluate, and communicate information in a variety of formats, including print and nonprint(sic)."  (http://www.ced.appstate.edu/departments/ci/programs/edmedia/medialit/article.html#What%20is%20Media%20Literacy)  This means a Media Literate person can find information, determine what it is saying, assess the accuracy and validity of the source, and communicate what was learned. to this definition I add the concept of comparing: finding what other people have interpreted and contrasting this with your own interpretation.  In analyzation and evaluation an individual begins to form an opinion, but it is in communication and comparing that the individual (and public view) is finalized.


The Center for Media Literacy in Santa Monica, California created five concepts of media literacy:

• All media messages are constructed.
• Media messages are constructed using creative language using its own rules.
• Different people experience the same media message differently.
• Media have embedded values and points of view.
• Most media messages are constructed to gain profit/and or value.(http://en.wikiversity.org/wiki/Media_literacy)

 The wiki article then goes on to list a question that corresponds to each concept and that I have summerized here: Who made this message? What are they communicating and why are they doing it in this manner? How might other people interpret this? What biases are behind this message? What is this trying to sell me?

Com 103 Introduction

"Hello world."


To whomever is reading this welcome to my blog.  I am currently a student at Reinhardt University in Waleska, GA.  This blog was created as an ongoing project in my Media Literacies class.  For better or worse, this will serve as the canvas for my thoughts on a variety of subjects.  Now about me: I am a Georgia native and have lived in Woodstock and Marietta.  I play guitar and piano and am an avid reader. My favorite writers are Tolkien, Verne, and C.S. Lewis.  I have an opinion for just about everything and you deserve to know it.  So, get ready...