Class:COM375 - Section 9 - Fall 2007/Homework/Week Two/Investigating a Cultural Text

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Lecture: Semiotics

Sign = a cultural text

Semiotics: a sign has meaning always (and only) on the basis of difference

Meaning comes from the functions of a sign (in other words, its action): “in the way we can relate things together, either through association or difference” (p. 16)

Historical (diachronic: leads from/out of a past, toward (?) a future….) (example from textbook = high/low culture) | | sign - - contemporary (simultaneous, synchronic) (example from textbook = reality television and fantasy film)

political – reflects a personal or group interest, 

coded – ideology or worldview (values and opinions) = power

historically: haircut popular when? Associated with who? Revived? Reflective of what kind of consciousness? What cultural mythologies or value systems are invoked, elicited, remembered, thought about, challenged, resisted…how do you react to the cultural text? What does your reaction tell or show about your own system of values and beliefs?

Textbook example Reality vs fantasy: • lack of excitement in everyday life • culture in which everything is supposed to be entertaining

How arrive? Popular culture = professional, for profit Corporate not communal Creative not conservative Creativity is “tied to commodification” (p. 4) Produced in a few locations, the same no matter where you consume Ideology = capitalism Advertising and PR “keeps us in line as consumers” (6)

Mutual interdependence: entertainment and ideological sides of ______________ the text uses popular culture (8)

Questions: (p. 11)
Why does this cultural text look the way it does?
Who is talking about it? (Who is not talking about it, but could be?)
Why am I doing this?
What are they really saying?
What am I really doing?
(p. 13)
What is this thing like (similar to)?
How is it different from some of the things that it resembles?