Media and Semiotics

What is media? My guess is that this is a topic of some contention, and probably the central question of media studies. I readily admit that I am no expert, with most of my media studies education coming from my subscriptions to NPR's podcast "On the Media." http://www.onthemedia.org/ So here I'll just share some of my general thoughts and observations, and I ask that readers consider this, like all posts, just the beginning of a dialog. This one is about gaining a working definition of "media."

In popular usage, the term "the media" has come to refer to news media. Print, radio, televesion, and now internet sources of news. I want to use the term much, much more broadly.

What I mean by media refers to signs and symbols that convey information. Here, I'm taking a cue from semiotics, a field which I hope to study in much more depth. Here are some web resources that I'm currently using the get a basic background in semiotics:
1) wikipedia article on semiotics - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Semiotics

2) middle school Media Literacy class blogs by Steven Miraglia - http://grade6medialiteracy.blogspot.com/
I really respect this educator!

3) Semiotics for Beginners by Daniel Chandler - http://www.aber.ac.uk/media/Documents/S4B/semiotic.html

Here are some salient quotes from the introduction of Semiotics for Beginners (accessed 3/26/10):

"...we have no way at all of representing smell or touch with conventional media." Conventional media also has no way of adequately representing taste. Thus, the media generally appeals to the senses of sight and sound.

"The everyday use of a medium by someone who knows how to use it typically passes unquestioned as unproblematic and 'neutral': this is hardly surprising since media evolve as a means of accomplishing purposes in which they are usually intended to be incidental. And the more frequently and fluently a medium is used, the more 'transparent' or 'invisible' to its users it tends to become. For most routine purposes, awareness of a medium may hamper its effectiveness as a means to an end. Indeed, it is typically when the medium acquires transparency that its potential to fulfil its primary function is greatest."

"The selectivity of any medium leads to its use having influences of which the user may not always be conscious, and which may not have been part of the purpose in using it."

It took me a little while to process this image, but I understand it to represent a feedback loop. The unintended consequences of the use of a medium end up altering the intended consequences of the use. In my own usage, I often experience this phenomenon while composing electronic music. I'll have an idea of the sound I want to produce in my head. But then when I interact with the software I'm using, play with various parameters on the synthesizer, or compose a beat while I listen to it looping, and my mental image, as well as the sound produced, are altered. More on this interactive process of composing later. More quotes of interest from Semiotics for Beginners:

"An awareness of this phenomenon of transformation by media has often led media theorists to argue deterministically that our technical means and systems always and inevitably become 'ends in themselves' (a common interpretation of Marshall McLuhan's famous aphorism, 'the medium is the message'), and has even led some to present media as wholly autonomous entities with 'purposes' (as opposed to functions) of their own. However, one need not adopt such extreme stances in acknowledging the transformations involved in processes of mediation. When we use a medium for any purpose, its use becomes part of that purpose. Travelling is an unavoidable part of getting somewhere; it may even become a primary goal. Travelling by one particular method of transport rather than another is part of the experience. So too with writing rather than speaking, or using a word processor rather than a pen. In using any medium, to some extent we serve its 'purposes' as well as it serving ours. When we engage with media we both act and are acted upon, use and are used. Where a medium has a variety of functions it may be impossible to choose to use it for only one of these functions in isolation. The making of meanings with such media must involve some degree of compromise. Complete identity between any specific purpose and the functionality of a medium is likely to be rare, although the degree of match may on most occasions be accepted as adequate."

This point is crucial. Here I might call for a distinction between media and medium, what I before referred to as media and technology. Media would be the signs and symbols produced by any given medium. The medium is the technological vehicle that transmits media. So media would be a television program, the medium the TV. Or this blog=media, the internet and a computer=medium. In the broader sense of technology, our mind is also a technological medium. More on that later. However, given the feedback loop model above ('the medium is the message'), this distinction may lack substantive meaning, especially in the context of burgeoning technological innovation where the technology itself gains substantial symbolic value.

"Whilst technological determinists emphasize that semiotic ecologies are influenced by the fundamental design features of different media, it is important to recognize the importance of socio-cultural and historical factors in shaping how different media are used and their (ever-shifting) status within particular cultural contexts."

"....why should we study semiotics?...Semiotics is important because it can help us not to take 'reality' for granted as something having a purely objective existence which is independent of human interpretation. It teaches us that reality is a system of signs. Studying semiotics can assist us to become more aware of reality as a construction and of the roles played by ourselves and others in constructing it. It can help us to realize that information or meaning is not 'contained' in the world or in books, computers or audio-visual media. Meaning is not 'transmitted' to us - we actively create it according to a complex interplay of codes or conventions of which we are normally unaware. Becoming aware of such codes is both inherently fascinating and intellectually empowering. We learn from semiotics that we live in a world of signs and we have no way of understanding anything except through signs and the codes into which they are organized. Through the study of semiotics we become aware that these signs and codes are normally transparent and disguise our task in 'reading' them. Living in a world of increasingly visual signs, we need to learn that even the most 'realistic' signs are not what they appear to be. By making more explicit the codes by which signs are interpreted we may perform the valuable semiotic function of 'denaturalizing' signs. In defining realities signs serve ideological functions. Deconstructing and contesting the realities of signs can reveal whose realities are privileged and whose are suppressed. The study of signs is the study of the construction and maintenance of reality. To decline such a study is to leave to others the control of the world of meanings which we inhabit."

This is why I want to go to grad school. When I say I'm interested in going to grad school for 'media studies,' I'm referring largely to this semiotic approach, combined with a strong practical element. Thus, the ideal program for me would balance this social scientific theory with practical application through media production, my particular focus being on sound related media and technology. The former (theoretical) part I estimate to be personally enriching, the latter part (technological) geared toward assembling useful skills in the 21st century's economy and culture.

This post is becoming longer that I intended, but I want to close with one more piece of personal meaning. Shortly before he died, my grandfather, a pastor and theologian who loved to engage those around him in intellectual debate, asked me "What are the most pervasive, most often used symbols in the world?" "I don't know...crosses or something?" "No," he replied exasperated at my ignorance, "WORDS!" Grandpa had gained the knowledge and wisdom embodied in semiotics, and was trying to impart some if it to me. Thus, I see this study as a continuation of my conversations with him; the continuation of the theological and intellectual tradition of my German-American ancestors going back over five generations; and the continuation of my own study of music, religion, culture, technology, and media. As such a potential well of personal and intellectual meaning, I am truly grateful to have encountered semiotics. As I hope to pursue graduate programs as I've described above, I'd also be wonderfully grateful to any who can give me guidance in the process of finding such programs. Your help, feedback, comments and suggestions are always appreciated.