Interpreting Media...

So, chapter one of the textbook, appropriately titled "Interpreting Media" was pretty interesting for the most part. I have had some background in things like content analysis and semiotics from past communications courses, but I'll admit that I didn't remember as much about these things as I probably should have, so the explanations in the text turned out to be quite helpful.

One of the things that I thought was interesting in this chapter was the section on codes and social nature of signs, particularly the part that discussed the debate over different ways of wording things in the media ("terrorists" vs. "resistance movement", "massive job losses" vs. "slimming down the work force"). I had never really given much thought to the effect that wording things a certain way in the media could potentially have on the viewers receiving such information. The concept of "anchoring" as an attempt to limit different interpretations of chosen words got me thinking about how important it actually is to pay attention to the mixed messages that can come from the wording of a statement, depending on the way each individual person chooses to read into certain messages.

Anyway, I personally found the chapter as a whole to be really informative, but the areas that discussed interpretation and meaning that can come from wording in the media was what really seemed to catch my attention, so I just thought I would mention it briefly...