Synopses & Reviews
Marcel Danesi is Director of Program and Professor of Semiotics and Communication Theory at University of Toronto. Media semiotics is a valuable method of focusing on the hidden meanings within media texts. Understanding Media Semiotics offers students an in-depth guide to help them investigate and understand the media using semiotic theory. It assumes little previous knowledge of the field, avoiding jargon and explaining the issues step by step. The two basic features of the methods used are the historical study of media and their genre and the analysis of the meaning structures that such genres encode. Semiotic analysis is sometimes seen as complicated and difficult to understand, but Marcel Danesi shows that, on the contrary, it can be readily understood and can greatly enrich students' understanding of media textsfrom print media right through to the internet. "Students will find much to consider in this book and will find much useful information."Convergence Vol 8 Number 3
Synopsis
Media semiotics is a valuable method of focusing on the hidden meanings within media texts. This book offers students an in-depth guide to help them investigate and understand the media using semiotic theory. It assumes little previous knowledge of the field, avoiding jargon and explaining the issues step by step. The two basic features of the methods used are the historical study of media and their genre and the analysis of the meaning structures that such genres encode. Semiotic analysis is sometimes seen as complicated and difficult to understand; Marcel Danesi shows that on the contrary it can be readily understood and can greatly enrich students' understanding of media texts, from print media right through to the internet.
Table of Contents
Introduction
1. The mediated world
What is a medium?
Development of the mass media
Basic notions
Semiotic method
2. An outline of semiotic theory
Background and general notions
Narrative
Metaphor
3. Print media
The development of print media
Books
Newspapers
Magazines
4. Audio media
Recorded music
Rock music
The radio
5. Film
Motion pictures
Cinema and postmodernism
Cinema genres
6. Television
The advent of TV
The impact of TV
TV and social change
7. The computer and the Internet
Computer media
The Internet
The computer and the mind
8. Advertising
What is advertising?
Creating a signification system
Advertising textuality
9. Social impacts of the media
Overview
Mediation
Concluding Reflections
Glossary
Bibliography
Index