Week 2
Vehicle Strand: The Meanings of Media
In this first part of the class we examine the key idea behind semiotics,
the study of signs: that meaning depends on difference. We look at the concepts of paradigms and syntagms and set about tweaking the script
for The Matrix.
Required Reading: Branston and Stafford
(2006), Ch. 1: 'Interpreting Media'.
Optional Reading: Saussure, 1964, pp. 111-14.
Environment Strand: Visual and Acoustic Space
In this second part of the class we look at McLuhan's notions of visual
and acoustic space. We trace the shift from a predominantly acoustic to
a visual environment brought about by the new media of literacy and print.
We look too at the suggestion that recent electronic media, especially the
internet, bring us to a new acoustic environment. Participants are shown
how to approach their Case Study, and we close
with a second look at The Matrix.
Optional Reading: McLuhan and Fiore, 1967,
pp. 48, 53-57, 63, 111-120, 125.
Optional Reading: Levinson, 1999,
Ch. 4.
Case Studies
If you choose to write a Case Study using this week's concepts you will
concentrate either on semiotics or on visual and acoustic space. If you
select the former you will need to choose a particular media artefact -
a short article from the Daily Mail, a scene from The OC or Annie Hall,
a washing powder advert, a shop window display, a Seabrooks crisp packet,
etc. - and analyse it in terms of key concepts from semiotics.
Useful Reading: Branston and Stafford,
2003, Ch. 1; Saussure, 1964, pp.
111-14; Chandler, 2005; Thwaites
et al., 2002, Part 1; Storey, 1998, pp.
73-89; O'Sullivan, Dutton and Rayner, 2003,
pp. 27-42; O'Shaughnessy, 1999, Ch. 4, 7,
8, Appendix 1; Hall, 1997.
If you would rather employ McLuhan's concepts of visual and acoustic space
you will need to choose some communication medium - telegraph, telephone,
cinema, texting, email, picture or video messaging, audio books, etc. -
and discuss the extent to which it creates a new visual or acoustic environment
for its users.
Useful Reading: McLuhan and Fiore, 1967,
pp. 48, 53-57, 63, 111-120, 125; McLuhan and
Carpenter, 1960b; Duffy, 1969, Ch. 4,
5, 6; Levinson, 1999, Ch. 4; Gordon
and Willmarth, 1997, pp. 31, 48-49; Birkerts,
1994a; Spender, 1995, Ch. 3, 4.
Whatever you choose, you will probably want to arrange a tutorial with the
Module Leader. For more information on the Case
Study see the section on Assessment in the Module Handbook.
Module Forum
Topics under discussion in the Module Forum this week
include binary oppositions and Titanic,
the cultural connotations of colours, the use of image captions as anchors,
the significance of the names of the major characters in The
Matrix as well as that of colours within the film, and a McLuhanesque
approach to cyberspace.
For more information on the Module Forum see the section on Assessment in
the Module Handbook.
Before Next Week's Class You Need To...
(1) Read Branston and Stafford (2006), Ch.
3: ''Genres' and Other Classifications'.
If you're stuck or confused, post your problem on the forum or .