In the transmission model of information, a medium is just the means of transmitting a message.
Clay isa medium in which to carry letters through space and/or time.
The letter forms themselves are signals forming a code (and they refer to another set of signals, the sounds of the words)
The message is a particular arrangements of signals within the rules of the code. The message is then decoded into a statement about the world: the meaning of the various embedded messages.
Ultimately this meaning is rooted in our embodied experience. But information can be viewed as separate from embodiment.
Codes can classify or organize material very well. They make for lack of ambiguity.
Restricted codes leave things out about the world. We can only see one thing by refusing to see something else. Example: mathematics, library of congress subject codes
Logical codes work on first order meanings only: algebra, chemistry, etc. They eliminate second order meanings and stick to the denotative.
Analog code: a smile to a frown; emotive codes are analogue, moral judgements, aesthetic judgements (second order meanings,(myths, connotation)
Digital code: quantity assigned to degree of smiliness (measure lip curve); 0 vs 1, a binary code. Musical notation: tones in music are a continuum but musical notation segments them into discrete entities.
"Being Analog": Donald Norman's response to Negroponte's Being Digitial. We are messy analog creatures. We need messier, more forgiving designs.*
Meaning is negotiated not transmitted
Meaning is situated within a particular individual, point of view, social relationship, value system, culture
denotative (a tree)
connotative (the "myth" of the countryside)
ideological (ecologically valued or leisured class or primitive nature countryside)
Patterns of meaning are always being interrupted, reinvented, extended, contested
Conventions are textual or social practices shared by members of a culture or subculture that make a communication or a particular action understandable. For example, shaking hands or putting headlines in larger type. Conventions are most often recognized when they are violated in some way.
Transmission model: Conventions allow us to limit ambiguity. We refer to the same item with the same name so we always know what we are talking about, and we can keep like things together, as in a library cataloging system.
Semiotic model: Conventions allow many individuals to experience the same response or to derive the same connotative meaning from the same communication. (This is called intersubjectivity)
Conventions are textual or social practices shared by members of a culture or subculture that make a communication or a particular action understandable. For example, shaking hands or putting headlines in larger type. Conventions are most often recognized when they are violated in some way.
Patterns of meaning in cognitive science are referred to schemas (or schemata) and in computer science as frames. A schema or frame is an abstract model of experience or beliefs into which we fit new experiences. We have a schema in our mind of what a kitchen is, so we do not have to understand the sink, refrigerator, countertop one at a time in every new kitchen we enter. A schema that guides how we behave in a socially patterned situation is called a script. We have scripts for eating in a restaurant, for proposing marriage, for negotiating the purchase of an automobile.
When a sign is connected to a meaning within a particular communicative community, we have an act of representation.
Representational codes are distinguished sometimes from presentational codes although both use signs. Presentational codes involve immediate bodily presence (e.g. gestures, clothing) rather than mediated communication (speech). However, one could argue that all communication is mediated through some signal, including unintentional signals. A sneeze represents something about the sneezer (index) and may have connotative value (irreverence, rudeness, spontaneity) depending on context.
Representation always involves
creation of a signal that acts as a sign: that has a referent or connotation other than itself
use of a medium of transmission (sound waves)
Representation as we are using it generally involves one or more of the following
abstraction from direct experience (not the act of sneezing, but the word "sneeze" or an actor enacting a sneeze, whether real or fake, on purpose)
social and cultural codes as well as logical (algebra-like) codes
imitation or reproduction or evocation of experience
abstraction from experience of some elements rather than all elements, or of generalized form rather than particular, or of single iconic element
organization of experience through codes, conventions, schemas
use of a medium of expression (not just of transmission): a medium that carries not just signals, but that affords the creation of signs and the elaboration of codes of meaning
The "Medium" of Print = the book, the newspaper
The "Medium" of Television = sit com, long form drama, talk show, reality show, shopping channel (first only network TV, then cable formats too, and perhaps soon "enhanced" TV with interactivity)
Example of Formats:
half hour TV broadcast with four commercial interruptions
TV miniseries
pages sewn or pasted together in unilinear order, with content divided into paragraphs and chapters
2 hour pre-recorded dramatic presentation seen in a public theater
Examples of Genres
Greek tragedy
Novel of manners
TV sit com
TV long form (melo)drama
TV Talk Show
Film Noir
Adventure Film
Western TV Show / Western Movie (media-specific subgenres of a meta-media narrative genre)
Formats are part of the transmission system, with some signifying value
Public TV is not just a transmission arrangement. It has a different cultural significance from transmission by other channels.
Genres are part of the signifying system and encode cultural values, myths, and ideology
Talk shows embody our values about celebrity and success
Sit coms embody our values about sexuality, marriage, parenting