SOC 202 Lecture : Week 10 Lecture Guide.doc
12 Apr 2012
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Document Summary
Less emphasis on structure, more on our/audience"s ability to exercise own agency -> audience all powerful. Production is less important than how audience interprets media messages it doesn"t matter what structural constraints were used, any given cultural product is polysemic. Media messages are open to multiple interpretations (poly = many, semic points) Audience brings diversity and multiple interpretations to any form of content. Total power regarding media messages and receptions/decoding. Media do not program our interpretations, audience decide upon meaning from given texts. Television messages create open and contradictory interpretations. Messages aren"t closed off open for interpretations. Struggle over meaning and power contradict one another"s perspective. When we challenge/debate different possible meanings, it makes polysemy possible only exists when we question each other"s interpretations when decoding media text. Roland barthes (1973) mythology and ferdinand de saussure. Analysis of messages that are visual, verbal and non-verbal. Word, picture, anything that your senses are aware of.
