SOC 202 Lecture : Week 10 Lecture Guide 2010 UPDATE.docx
12 Apr 2012
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Document Summary
How polysemy might be different from hegemonic. Fiske doesn t believe political economy can tell us about how people interpret things. Paul: has more emphasis on structure and agency. Flaw: to think that none of those things that don t have an impact. Fiske believes we all have power, so those structures shouldn t limit our ability to think. They don t matter because media messages are open to multiple readings. Polysemic: interpretations are limitless and open, and are unpredictable. Paul: there are only three ways that we can decode. It doesn t matter if someone else s interpretation is of the dominant ideology. We have total power when it comes to interpretation (individual) Media doesn t program our thoughts, we create our own interpretation. Television messages (and other texts) create open and contradictory interpretations. Open-text: there s no guarantee how people will interpret, not given choice, multiple, polysemimc, being contradictory.
