Saturday, 19 October 2013

The Rise of Visual Culture

The Rise of Visual Culture

- culture - texts/artefacts embedded with meaning
- image/object encoded in its production
- further encoded when placed in a setting/context
- decoded by viewers depending on their set of cultural assumptions and viewing context

Sender    > Message > Receiver
Encodes > Medium   > Decodes
                         <
                  Feedback

medium - channel/means of communication
feedback - know the message is understood successfully 

mass media, e.g. newspapers, TV, film, radio, internet, enables transmission/sending/encoding + reception/'reading'/decoding or messages on a large scale

effective communication relies on the receiver understanding the message
- usually shared+ agreed meanings based on common /shared experiences

messages made of signs -
semiotics - art/science of studying signs

signs  built of signified + signifier

image/word - signifier =>
+                                         }sign
meaning - signified     =>           

diff signifiers refer to the same signified
same signifier refers to the diff signified

meaning based on shared agreement
meaning is learned - not natural

constantly interpreting signs + decoding them according to own experiences + values
representations are re-presentation of reality - not real

Barthes - all images have more than one meaning
 - one meaning leads to more being uncovered - chain of signifiers

polysemy - many meanings

culture of mediation

Marchall McLuhan - 'Understanding Media'

situation culture
situations/surroundings shape individual identities 
primarily an oral culture - word of mouth
communication; - usually a two-way process
- face-to-face
- direct

mass communication
mass media culture more a one way process
gap between the sender and receiver 
lacking in audience response 

mass media - become the facts of life - become more socially and culturally dependent on them

what effects do the media have on society?

mistrust of popular culture - debase/degrade cultural traditions + standards

John Fiske 

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