scholarly journals Graffiti as a sign: the semiotic approach to the study of the phenomenon

Author(s):  
Maria Chikarkova ◽  

Although graffiti is a well-known phenomenon of street art, there is still no single point of view on this phenomenon (even if it is considered art at all). Both the essence and the manifestations of graffiti remain a matter of debate - there are dozens of different classifications, that they are based on different characteristics. However, the phenomenon has rarely attracted attention from the point of view of semiotics, though it is the semiotic reading of graffiti that makes it possible to understand its nature more deeply. Due to semiotics we could create an integrative classification, which would combine stylistics and subject matter into one system. The article made exactly such an attempt –providing of the semiotic classification of graffiti, based on Ch. Peirce’s classification of semiotic signs. Graffiti is a sign, because it has a material shell of the latter, a marked object and rules of interpretation. It functions within the subculture and signifies the individual's desire to escape from the deterministic nature of urban life (J. Baudrillard). It is a culture of the semiosphere, which continuously gives rise to new connotations and, accordingly, generates new receptions. An important component of graffiti interpretation is the cultural code; it is not read outside the field of conventionality, cultural context. Decoding of graffiti can occur in three ways. From our point of view, it is appropriate to use S. Hall’sclassification. He suggested a scheme for "decrypting" messages in the media, however, in our opinion, his scheme works for any communicative act (including graffiti). He distinguished dominant ("dominant-hegemonic"), oppositional ("oppositional") and negotiated ("negotiated") decoding. In the graffiti situation, oppositional decoding prevails among ordinary recipients (passers-by). U. Eco called this type aberrant, because it provides "decryption" of text with a different code than the one it was created for. Authors of graffiti themselves are often not fully aware of what they createalso. Modern writers use techniques of op-art, Dadaism, surrealism, etc., without being very oriented in all these directions. When graffiti combines different types of art (for example, the combination of painting with literature), it takes into account the features of inter-semiotic translation, which makes the decoding situation even more complicated. We offercreating a semioticclassificationofgraffiti, that might be based on Ch. Peirce’s classification of semiotic signs, whichdistinguishthesigns-copies, signs-indexes, signs-symbols. It could help the essence of graffiti and decode them.

Author(s):  
Сергей Вартанов

Настоящая работа представляет собой первую, вводную часть цикла статей, посвященных обзору существующих моделей, методов и взглядов на эффекты воздействия экономического института рекламы на рынок на всех возможных уровнях. В первой части цикла приводится общий обзор наиболее значимых подходов к изучению рекламной деятельности фирм, влияния рекламы на потребителей и на характеристики экономического равновесия. Построена классификация экономических эффектов рекламы, учитывающая все существующие аспекты ее воздействия и кратко описаны подходы к анализу ее первичных, вторичных и третичных эффектов. The present work is an introduction to a cycle of review articles dedicated to a comprehensive description and analysis of effects caused by advertising as an economic institution on the whole economy on different levels. A general review of most significant approaches to analyze the firms advertising activities is carried out as well as a diversified overview of methods and mathematical apparatus of modelling advertisement influence on consumers and on the characteristics of economic equilibrium. A classification of such influence effects is constructed, based on different characteristics of advertising, including its content, duration, intensity, as well as types of firms’ ad strategies and the level of economy affected by ad influence. From the latter point of view the economic effects of advertising may be divided into three levels. Primary effects involve only the consumers and describe the shift in their demand inspired by advertisement. The emergence of primary effects gives a new tool to operate the demand for the producing firms. For the latter it means that they may develop an optimal strategy, different from the one that fits the “non-ad” case, and this difference forms the essence of the secondary tier of the economic effects of the advertising (secondary effects). Finally, the tertiary effects of advertising deal with the shift in general market characteristics and structure induced by the existence of advertising as an institution such as social welfare change or emergence of new equilibriums or advertising markets as well as advertising-driven intersectoral linkages between production and media industries.


2020 ◽  
Vol 136 (2) ◽  
pp. 538-566
Author(s):  
Sandra Issel-Dombert

AbstractFrom a theoretical and empirical linguistic point of view, this paper emphasizes the importance of the relationship between populism and the media. The aim of this article is to explore the language use of the Spanish right wing populism party Vox on the basis of its multimodal postings on the social network Instagram. For the analysis of their Instagram account, a suitable multimodal discourse analysis (MDA) provides a variety of methods and allows a theoretical integration into constructivism. A hashtag-analysis reveals that Vox’s ideology consists of a nativist and ethnocentric nationalism on the one hand and conservatism on the other. With a topos analysis, the linguistic realisations of these core elements are illustrated with two case studies.


2018 ◽  
Vol 9 ◽  
pp. 135-143
Author(s):  
Anna Hłuszko

Shock content as a manipulative component of conflict discourseDifficult socio-political situation in Ukraine creates specific media discourse, which in turn gives rise to a number of phenomena, connected to information war categories, war of meanings, hate speech etc. Active entry of military issues into web news content affects traditional approach to the media-text drafting. The report examines the trends of shock visual content and its announcement in the web headlines. The influence of the content emotionalization, which is one of the common features for conflict discourse, not only on text style, but also on features of page making, selection and use of photo illustrations, headline creation, is studied. The material covering military developments usually involve deaths, injuries, loss, destruction of settlements as a result of hostilities, that is, they focus on information on suffering of both military and civilians. This results in stronger integration of shock visual content into the news, which in turn may be used as manipulation and propaganda tool. On the one hand it is used to demonstrate crimes of the enemy, on the other — as an evidence of Ukrainian military success. From the point of view of ethic and humanism the justification of such tactic is doubtful in both cases. However, the study shows that open image of death, blood, injuries in the materials and the announcement of such content in headlines are the cause of high popularity of such publications, and this mainstreams the problem of dehumanizing impact both on material’s subjects and on media audience.


2016 ◽  
Vol 4 (4) ◽  
pp. 367-384 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas Birkner ◽  
Daniel Nölleke

Using the concept of mediatization, in this article, we analyze the relationship between sport and media from a sport-centered perspective. Examining the autobiographies of 14 German and English soccer players, we investigate how athletes use media outlets, what they perceive as the media’s influence and its logic, and—crucially—how this usage and these perceptions affect their own media-related behavior. Our findings demonstrate the important role of the media for the sports systems from the athlete’s point of view and demonstrate the research potential of mediatization as a fruitful concept in studies on sport communication. On the one hand, the sport stars reflect in their autobiographies that their status and income depend on media coverage; and on the other hand, they complain about the omnipresence of the media, especially offside the pitch and feel unfairly treated by the tabloid press, both in England and in Germany.


2012 ◽  
Vol 21 (26) ◽  
pp. 34-43
Author(s):  
Joanna Bryła-Lech

Fixed word combinations and their modifications are frequently used by journalists in press releases of a political and/or social profile. Analyzing the source material gathered from “Gazeta Wyborcza” in 2001, I found many lexical variants of phrasemes and proverbs.The most interesting modifications appeared in the headlines. This article describes a few such examples.Fixed word combinations make it easier for senders of political-social announcements to express their thoughts indirectly. They can be used to convey irony, mockery, or aversion towards a person or the subject of the statement in a veiled way. The proper understanding (i.e., in accordance with the sender’s intentions) of such a constructed announcement often requires some intellectual effort from the reader. It is a kind of game. Interpreting the metaphorical sense causes a relationship to form between the participants of the communicative process.Changeable modifications appear as a result of the replacement of one component by a different word, which from the sender’s point of view is more attractive than the one in the base form (Bąba 1989, p. 54). This leads to the appearance of so-called lexical variants. Most frequently, these units are not fixed in the Polish language, but are created especially for the needs of a certain text. They enable the meaning of a phraseme or proverb to be matched to the content of the article, which constitutes the context of its usage. They usually narrow the meaning.The modified phrasemes and proverbs attract the reader’s attention, convincing him of the sender’s views. The language of politics and the media is the language of manipulation and persuasion. Fixed word combinations are very important language devices that facilitate an effective influence on the reader/receiver.


Author(s):  
Valentina N. Burkova ◽  
Julia N. Fedenok

Using a medical mask is one of the ways to prevent the spread of respiratory infections, including COVID-19. The willingness to use the mask in different countries depends on a number of factors – epidemiological experience, cultural norms and attitudes, economic and political conditions, public awareness, etc. The purpose of this study is to analyze the first reaction of the population to prescriptions or recommendations of authorities to use medical masks as a means of personal protection during COVID-19 in different countries. We used methods of semi-structured in-depth interviews, questionnaires, photo-fixation of elements of people's behavior during the pandemic, content analysis of the media. In total, 366 questionnaires were collected (51 males and 315 females) among Russian-speaking people who were living or staying abroad at the time of the outbreak and spreading of COVID-19, as well as among Russians from different regions of Russia since March 23 to April 10, 2020. An analysis of the data showed that the willingness to use a mask depends on the country of residence of the respondent, gender, social distance and trust in the authorities. The results of the study demonstrate the effect of official decisions on the real behavior of people – the more serious are measures on the part of the government, the more responsible are people about preventive measures and the better they implement them. The results were interpreted from the point of view of “Individualism-Collectivism” dichotomous classification of cultures. These results are the first step of the study and reveal the first stage of people's response to the restrictions. Understanding of socio-cultural and ethnic circumstances of population’s perception and implementation of sanitary-hygienic prescriptions can be used in choosing the most optimal ways of warning and developing efficient methods to encourage the population to adhere to restrictions.


2014 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 28-51 ◽  
Author(s):  
Valérie-Anne Bleyen ◽  
Sven Lindmark ◽  
Heritiana Ranaivoson ◽  
Pieter Ballon

The concept and phenomenon of media innovation is gaining some attention in the academic community, policy circles and among practitioners. However, the phenomenon is still poorly defined and not well understood. This paper therefore first analyses how media innovation is framed in the literature on media economics and media management. Then it considers to what extent the standard analysis of innovation could be applied to the media field, considering, on the one hand, the traditional view on innovation policy and, on the other hand, some of the most common indicators of innovation. Based on this information, the paper suggests a novel conceptualisation of media innovation. Furthermore, an analysis of statistical indicators on R&D expenditure leads to three assumptions related to media innovation, namely (1) that the Media and Content Industries (MCIs) are much less innovative than the ICT industries, or/and (2) that R&D statistics do not properly capture the innovativeness of the MCIs, or/and (3) that the innovative activities in media and content are largely taking place elsewhere (for instance in the ICT sector). Whereas the statistical indicators point towards the second explanation, a small round of expert interviews in Flanders revealed that there is a case for assumptions (1) and (3) as well. First of all, it was shown that all forms of innovation defined in our typology exist in the media field, but not with the same importance. The most important ones from the media industries’ point of view seems to be the innovation related to the product, notably concerning the core (e.g. creation of new types of TV shows) and business model innovation. There is also technological innovation taking place in the media industries, for instance concerning new ways to access and interact with the content but this innovation comes from out the media sector (e.g. HD-TV, search engines) and at best the media industries try to adapt to this rapidly changing technological context.


2011 ◽  
pp. 2805-2829 ◽  
Author(s):  
Efthimios Tambouris ◽  
Maria Wimmer

One-stop government refers to the integration of public services from a customer’s (citizen, business) point of view. One-stop government suggests that customers may request any public service through a single point of access using the communication channel of their choice (e.g., citizen center, call center, Internet, etc.). The one-stop concept further attempts to reduce the number of contacts with the authorities per service consumption to a minimum— one single interaction at best. The information and public services offered are organized and integrated in a customer-focused manner to address the personal needs and to cover the exact requirements of the citizens and business customers. To exploit the potential of one-stop government, the public sector should be accommodated with a set of information and communication technology tools that allow the back-office processes to interoperate. The public servants may thereafter use these tools in order to create and manage information and integrated public services that match the needs of their customers. In this chapter, the concept of online one-stop government is examined and a framework for realizing one-stop government is proposed. The proposed framework consists of process models and an open interoperable software architecture. A demonstrator that has been developed to implement the architectural design is also presented. Furthermore, the results of the trial use of the demonstrator in three European countries are outlined. Finally, experiences gained are provided and impact is assessed.


Babel ◽  
2014 ◽  
Vol 60 (2) ◽  
pp. 193-215
Author(s):  
José Santaemilia Ruiz ◽  
Betlem Soler Pardo

In Spain, as in the rest of the non-Anglophone Western world, English-language film titles have become texts (or paratexts) of great cultural importance. The titles of the films that one may encounter in Western cinema can be considered, on the one hand ephemeral, elusive, and inconsequential. However, on the other hand, despite their clear irrelevance, film titles are considered to be the genuine contemporary cultural texts, for their continued presence in the media and for their evocative nature: an important marketing tool. Moreover, the result of what happens when film titles are translated into other languages and cultures has always intrigued the audience: this is perhaps indicative of the vast universe of translation studies. The differences between languages are palpable, not only from a linguistic point of view but also from a pragmatic, historical or cultural standpoint. In this paper, we deal with the translation of Quentin Tarantino’s film titles into a number of European languages, including Spanish, Catalan, French and German. Quentin Tarantino’s films are controversial, self-reflexive and have acquired a significant recognition within popular culture. Most of the typologies employed so far have revolved around the notion of ‘fidelity” in the translation of film titles, and involving such strategies as literal translation, transposition, addition, etc. We wish to propose here another avenue for investigation: that of film-title translation as a complex (and globalised) rewriting phenomenon that benefits the commercial and ideological interests of the film industry.


1993 ◽  
Vol 17 (2) ◽  
pp. 259-279 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aggeliki Fotopoulou

In this article we have stressed the treatment of the genitive case for a syntactic classification of sentences containing frozen complements: the genitive presents a problem to the extent that several syntactic functions can be assigned to it. Thus, on the one hand we examine sentences whose complement in the genitive is frozen and, on the other hand, we examine frozen sentences whose genitive complement is free. In the first case, we use three tests to determine the syntactic status of the genitive in question: (i) the alternation of the genitive complement with a prepositional phrase; (ii) a comparison with free sentences having an equivalent structure; (iii) the paraphrase of the genitive complement by an adverbial, which is frequently prepositional. In the second case, when the base form is N0 V C (accus) N (gén), we have made use of such properties as the following: (i) the pronominalisation in the form of a Ppv, (ii) the pronominalisation in the form of a Poss, (iii) the alternation of the genitive with a prepositional phrase (à N (accus)), which brings out distinct structures quite clearly. In this way, taking syntactic criteria into account for the analysis of (free or frozen) genitive forms allows us to set up classes that are more homogeneous from the point of view of their syntax. We have also been able to observe that cases, as morphological markers, play no essential role in the criteria that constitute the basis of our classification.


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