Tuesday, March 2, 2010

Reflection on e-learning task 2

I was reading other articles from Kress and I realised that I commented in my earlier post that prior knowledge would affect the way we make meanings of the stories. I think I agree with what Kress had to say about the various meanings which can be derived from various readers/viewers.

Kress (2004) stated that:
Signs have the potential of becoming signifiers with meaning and the sign makers original meaning can be changed through interpretation by the listener, reader, viewer of the sign.

In relating to Pierce's work (sign as icon, index, symbol), Kress also noted that 'the reader, speaker, viewer can change the content of the meaning according to the changing local context in which the sign is encountered. Social conventions can never determine meaning in an absolute sense.'

Further, Kress stated that: "The social in social semiotics draws attention to the fact that meanings always relate to specific societies and their cultures, and to the meanings of the members of those cultures."

Therefore, the same story viewed by viewers of different races, cultural background will impact the meanings they make. I'm glad that I could find a reason to explain why I didn't get the meanings of some 'signs' when I viewed some of the stories online. I didn't think my mind was that shallow :(
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3 comments:

  1. AnonymousMarch 2, 2010 at 11:53 PM

    Adding on to the different meanings that you've mentioned as being culture and context specific, I believe, it is also heteroglossia that tends to move language towards multiplicity in terms of:
    multiple meanings for individual words or phrases.
    For your information, HETEROGLOSSIA comes from the word ‘hetero’, meaning ‘many’ and ‘glossia’, meaning ‘voices’.Hence, heteroglossia literally means ‘many voices of discourse’:-)

    -su

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  2. ChiayenMarch 9, 2010 at 10:22 AM

    Hi Ras,

    Just wish to say thank you for the quotes you picked out and wrote in your blog. Not having read Kress' work, these quotes definitely add to my understanding about meaning making. I have a sense of finally being able to start piecing the many pieces of puzzles together as we move along the weeks. Thanks to the reading and all the sharing through blogs and in class.

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  3. JoshuaMarch 10, 2010 at 6:31 PM

    Indeed, meaning-making is culturally bounded and largely dependent on our prior knowledge. I suppose the implication for us teachers is to think of ways on how to bridge that gap for students if they lack the prior knowledge.

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