Interpreting Media Messages Meeting Two Intertextuality and

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Interpreting Media Messages

• Meeting Two

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Intertextuality and Self-Construction

• INTERTEXTUALITY
• All texts contain other texts
• Media discourse is qualitatively continuous
  within the exposure of everyday life.
• Viewers draw from their own attitudes, values and
  memories for meaning
• Viewers freely associate their own direct
  experiences with media images

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Example

• Viewers watching Wall Street Week activate
  various types of knowledge drawn from other
  sources.
• There is a complexity of viewer discourse about
  economic news

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Game Show IntertextualityWheel of Fortune

• SITUATIVE FRAMEWORK
• Show is situated as open and geared toward
  spectator
• Defined roles of host, assistant, guest, players,
  audience, viewers

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Fortune is a network of 3 integrated situative
frameworks

• Located in the context of TV
• Belongs to the genre of TV entertainment
• Includes on-stage presentations of individual
  scenes
• Situative components have thematic, interpretive
  and motivational importance for participants in
  defining behavior roles and communication power

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Game rules define situation for participants

• HOST focuses interactions with players on self,
  structures situation, provides cue-words and
  instruction. Power symbol.
• ASSISTANT turns playing board letters
• VOICE OVER present products, prizes
• STUDIO AUDIENCE audible, not visible sealed from
  what is on-screen.

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Context

• Show adapts situations, problems, games from
  everyday life
• Everyday guessing is core of the show
• Everyday knowledge is gained through popular
  media consumption
• Show success not based upon previous specialized
  education

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Prizes objects of value and profit

• Consumption of objects is part of self-image
• An appeal to viewers socioculture class
  affiliation is carried out through the selection
  of winnings alone
• Products are hidden stars.
• Achievement is rewarded in competitive situations
  - 1 winner, others losers
• Even if game is out of everyday life, outcome
  reverts back to aspects of everyday values

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Game Show Genres

• Competitive games (Board Room, Survivor)
• Guessing or quiz shows (Jeopardy)
• Prize games (Wheel of Fortune)
• Interactive games (Blind Date)

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Social Semiotics of Media Reception Qualitative
Concepts

• Discourse / language is social reality,
  inter-subjective and represents both an
  analytical object and central tool of analysis
• Subjectivity is conceived through language and
  gives voice to a discursive position
• Context is a configuration of texts, which must
  be read or interpreted

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Social Semiotics Distilled

• Signs are primary mod of interacting with reality
  and establishing meaning production.
• Signs are not what we know but how we come to
  know what we say we know.
• Concept of differences imply a focus on social
  uses of signs, not signs themselves
• Interpretive communities incorporate social and
  discursive aspects of reception
• Qualitative studies use semiotics by analyzing
  audience uses of media in cultural contexts

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Encoding / Decoding

• Encoding Message senders craft meaning a for
  audiences by delivering a text with
  audience-specific symbols
• Decoding Message receivers make sense out of the
  message through their symbolic associations
• Aberrant decoding occurs when the audiences
  interpretation differs from what the sender
  intended

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1984 Commercial

• Intended message a parody of the battle between
  Apple and IBM
• Science fiction genre invoked
• No commercial message until the end
• Story told with symbols

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Images and Culture-Based Meanings

• Element
• Time
• Setting
• Woman
• Soldiers
• Inmates
• Big Bro
• Explosion

• USA Russia
• Future past
• Prison concentration camp
• Heroine, Nike athlete, freedom
• SWAT, bad police, fear, control
• Clones, bald camp inmates, skins
• IBM boss/media dictator
• New generation revolution

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Questions

• How does Reader Response theory differ from
  aberrant decoding?
• What can producers of TV spots do to avoid one
  and positively enable the other?

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Guess Commercial

• Watch w/o sound. Write a script to accompany the
  visuals. What assumptions have you made? Where to
  they come from?
• What differences exist among viewers?
• Watch with sound. Explain what language
  contributes to understanding the message.
• From what text genres does it draw?

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Readings Wicks

• He says the more we use media, the less we
  interact with other people. True?
• He blames internet discourse for halting pubic
  discourse. What role does MoveOn.com play in this
  debate?
• Is profit the prime motivator for todays media
  providers?
• How likely are audiences to reject mediated
  messages?

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Readings Film Analysis

• Are the authors correct in concluding that an
  appeal to enlightened self-interest is the films
  most successful means of communicating its
  message? Why?
• What is the role of selective perception for film
  viewing?
• How serious is the boomerang effect for film
  producers?

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Readings Social Problem Movie

• This study says addicts get reinforcement of
  their fantasies and addictions from film.
• What are some examples from recently released
  films that might accommodate addicts?
• What audience benefits may result from films on
  social problems?