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Semiotics

Lecture Modes of Address

Modes of Address

Definition: Ways parts of a text or utterances are formed which decide the relationship between the sender / creator of texts (Addresser) and receiver/reader of texts texts (Addressee)

refers to 'how media texts 'speak to' an audience

media texts always address somebody they seek to engage their audiences in the

practice of reading or viewing devices used may be direct or indirect,devices used may be direct or indirect,

obvious and subtle

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Through language: words used to decide on the relationship eg.

Let us now look at more detail what we meant by social action is semiotic and that all semiotic action is social

vsNow look at more detail what is meant by

social action is semiotic

Through visual: visual element used to determine the kind of relationship

Signs and modes of address

Pierce (1931):A sign addresses somebody.

Sign addresses us in a particular code Genre semiotic code in which readers are Genre semiotic code in which readers are

considered as ideal readers through the use of modes of address

Ideal to read text in the way it is created specifically (for certain readers)

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audience identity is written into texts in a number of ways variations in tone, pace, language etc.

reflect the producers notions of who the paudience is

modes of address will vary depending on the media form and the perceived audience

the more specialised the target audience, the more distinctive the mode of address

Genre Categorised texts based on conventions of

forms and content which are shared by texts of a particular genre

F f l f t i t t f th Focus on formal features in texts of the same genre which share codes and use particular modes of addressEg of genre: formal letters, horror movies,

scientific reports, musical theater

Genre?Formal features? Content?

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Modes of address

Influence by three interrelated factors:

Contexts of texts; eg conventions of genre

Social context; eg social composition of receiver/reader

Technological constraints; media features usedeg synchronous interpersonal communication

- internet chat system (text only)- telephone (utterances only)

Modes of address

Differ in their directness, their formality and their narrative point-of-view their narrative point-of-view

Points-of-view

third-person narration omniscient narrator

-intrusive-self-effacing-self-effacing

selective point-of-view of character(s) first-person narration: narrated directly by a

character

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Directness

Directness (Tolson, 1996) you addressed directly gaze involves power involves power Direct mode of adddressexamples:Newsreaders, weather forecasters

Gaze (Kress & van leeuwen) The spectator's gaze: spectator viewing the text

The Intra-diegetic gaze: in a text, a character gazes upon an object or another character in the text.

The Extra-diegetic gaze: a textual character consciously addresses (looks at) the viewer, e.g. in dramaturgy, an aside to the audience; in cinema, acknowledgement of the fourth wall, the viewer.

The camera's gaze: is the film director's gaze.

The editorial gaze: emphasizes a textual aspect, e.g. a photograph, its cropping and caption direct the reader(s) to a specific person, place, or object in the text.

the indirect gaze: the spectator initiates viewing the subject, who is unaware of being viewed

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Directness

Directness

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Directness

Formality/Social distance (Kress dan van Leeuwen, 1996)

IntimatePersonalSocialPublic or impersonal

Formality/Social distance

Language intimate : not explicit, dependent upon non-

verbal personal: some explicitness, slightly less

dependent upon non verbaldependent upon non-verbal social: more explicit, partly dependent upon non-

verbal public/impersonal: very explicit, not dependent

upon non-verbal

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Formality/social distance

Visual intimate: face /head -- personal: shoulder and head -- social: waist and above-- public/impersonal: whole figure

Shot size

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Directness and formality

Example

Typical modes of address Film

Impersonal; audience rarely acknowledged. Spectator placed in privileged position of often

knowing more than the characters. Audience addressed indirectly through narrative

viewpointviewpoint Plots usually resolved Little sense of author/producer outside credits. Audience invited in to experience another world.

Television

personal, direct address to viewer who is acknowledged.

works to attract our attention because viewing can be casual

texts such as News, soaps, sitcoms refuse resolution (are continuous).

Viewers assumed to be members of a family. As a national audience More specialist audiences also addressed

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Radio

most personal/intimate, regional/local - variations in accent , tone and

delivery. distinctive audiencesdistinctive audiences attempts to construct dialogue with audience

(phone ins). Access (your station). Use of jingles to establish stations sense of

identity.

Magazines

direct address through text and images, front page important in establishing identity. can appeal to different aspects of personality visual appeal important visual appeal important.

Newspapers

Broadsheets - impersonal , formal , detached. Subdued tone, non participatory and less direct

Tabloids - loud ,personal, more direct , use of pparticipatory gestures

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Textual codes and modes of address Textual codes construct possible reading

positions for the addresser and addressee 'the functions of address' - in terms of the

construction of such subjects and of jrelationships between them

expressive function: the construction of an addresser (authorial persona);

conative function: the construction of an addressee (ideal reader);

phatic function: the construction of a relationship between these two

(Thwaites et al. 1994, 14-15)

Codes (Fiske)

Narrowcast - limited audience Broadcast - shared by members of a mass

audience Bernstein callsBernstein calls

narrowcast codes as elaborated codes broadcast codes as restricted codes

Interpellation (Althusser)

Althusser gave prominence to the notion of the subject - human subject is 'constituted' (constructed) by pre-given structures

a specific mode of address aimed at positioning receivers so that they accept their place in areceivers so that they accept their place in a discourse

media texts position receivers to accept the position being offered, rendering subjects vulnerable to dominant ideologies

understanding the meaning of a text involves taking on an appropriate ideological identity

explain the political function of mass media texts

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Interpellation - AlthusserIdeology 'acts' or 'functions' in such a way that it 'recruits' subjects among the individuals (it recruits them all) or 'transforms' the individuals into subjects (it transforms them all) by that very precise operation which I have called interpellationor hailing, and which can be imagined along the lines of the most commonplace police (or other) hailing: 'Hey, you there!' p p ( ) g y, y

Assuming that the theoretical scene I have imagined takes place in the street, the hailed individual will turn round. By this mere one-hundred-and-eighty-degree physical conversion, he becomes a subject. Why? Because he has recognized that the hail was 'really' addressed to him, and that 'it was really him who was hailed' (and not someone else).

(Althusser 1971: 174)

Interpellation Marxist media theorists the subject (viewer, listener, reader) is constituted by

the text the power of the mass media resides in their ability to

position the subject in such a way that their representations are taken to be reflections ofrepresentations are taken to be reflections of everyday reality

reflect a stance of textual determinism but actually texts have a polysemic nature (plurality

of meanings) together with the diversity of their use and interpretation by different audiences ('multiaccentuality').

Interpellation

The familiarity of the codes) leads us to routinely 'suspend our disbelief' in the form

Recognition of the familiar (in the guise of the 'natural') repeatedly confirms our conventional ways of seeing and thus reinforces our sense of self whilstof seeing and thus reinforces our sense of self whilst at the same time invisibly contributing to its construction.

'When we say "I see (what the image means)" this act simultaneously installs us in a place of knowledge and slips us into place as subject to this meaning.

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Discussion question

1. Discuss the two visual texts given in terms of its genre, receiver of the text, directness and formality.