MDSA01H3 Lecture Notes - Lecture 5: Eze, Soltyrei, Homicide
Document Summary
Media messages convey meanings, neither neutral or objective. Films, tv shows, songs, etc. constantly inviting us to adopt certain attitudes, values and beliefs while at the same time encouraging us to dismiss and discount others. Rhetoric referred to ancient art of oratory, aristotle defined it, an ability, in each particular case, to see the available means of persuasion. Rhetoric the use of symbols by humans to influence and move other humans. Symbols are value-laden and thus all messages, as symbolic creations, are necessarily biased. Whether it be a documentary film or scientific monograph, it will be biased and suasory (to some extent) Sign something that invites someone to think of something other than itself. Virtually anything can function as a sign. When multiple people agree on what a sign refers to, sign has shared meaning". Shared meaning is what makes human communication possible, without it social interaction/structures cease to exist.
