Mikolaj Sobocinski
INFORMATION CHAIN IN LINGUISTIC THEORIES OF SIGN AND MEDIATION.
HOW TECHNOLOGY, HUMAN FACTOR, AND IDEOLOGY
CREATE PRESS PICTORIAL MESSAGES.
“Representation is the production of the meaning of the
concepts in our minds.”
(Hall, Representation: 17)
“[A]lways interrogate ‘the falsely obvious’, the what-goeswithout-saying.”
(Storey, Popular Culture and British Culture Studies: 16)
”If mass communication is indeed communication, then it
must communicate something.”
(Fiske, Hurtley, Reading Television: 80)
INTRODUCTION
Our world of the society of the 20th and 21st centuries is becoming the realm of pictorial
representation. Modern technologies of recording images and mediating them enable the press, the
television, and the Internet to base their messages on images. As images have dominated our
communication, their impact on our cognition of the world has grown substantially. This thesis
attempts at discovering methods in which technology and underlying culture specific features are
built into pictorial messages used in the press and posters. It also describes factors unintentionally
or deliberately influencing every act of mediating information.
The thesis is divided into seven chapters corresponding to various approaches and analyses
employed within them. The first chapter analyses technological implications of mediating
messages. Technology is understood here as both the mechanical and physical features of mediating
messages with ‘tools’. The chapter also describes the influence senders and mediators of (pictorial)
information may exert on final messages that reach readers. The chapter’s concluding part describes
the diversity of discourses present in every society. The nature of discourses and their codes, as well
as the manipulation of those, are analysed in chapter 3, devoted to presenting various linguistic and
culture studies theories. Various linguistic and cultural theories are employed in analysis of the act
of mediating. The chapter begins with the analysis of signs and systems of communication (de
Saussure and Lévi-Strauss). Later, theories of culture-specific codes and mythologies are introduced
(Eco, Barthes, Hall). Finally, Marxist approach is employed in the analysis of the mediation of
pictorial messages (Althusser, Gramsci). The ideas of scholars are interwoven with graphic
examples analysed according to the theories presented. Chapter 5 draws a conclusion from the
analyses of chapters 1 and 3. The conclusion is graphically presented in a few versions of
information chain. The chain evolves with the development of the theories it attempts to encompass.
The final chain is described as a means of reading messages thanks to which readers may sift out
information about an event from ideological elements of a message.
The theoretical conclusion of chapter 5 is employed in the analysis of a few examples in
chapter 6. This chapter presents a few examples of images and posters as it tries to postulate some
reading techniques that a reader may use. Finally, in chapter 7, a general conclusion is sketched out
of analyses and conclusions of the previous parts. The conclusion attempts to explain if and how
‘we readers’ are constantly manipulated. Chapters 2 and 4 are devoted to demonstrating a few
representative examples of press photography, and war and film posters respectively. Images
constitute a collection of press pictures from numerous newspapers (Time, Newsweek, The
Guardian, The Daily Telegraph) and of film and war posters from picture collections by Hudson,
Yapp and Mayes. As in the case of John Berger’s “Ways of Seeing”, the chapters presenting only
images constitute an indispensable reading for the evaluation of the analysis presented in the thesis.
Chapter 1 SENDING A MESSAGE – TECHNOLOGICAL IMPLICATIONS
Every message is physical, and this physicality imposes inescapable changes information
has to undergo before it reaches the audience. Those inevitable shifts in the structure of a message
can be divided into three headings: technological, human, and contextual. Technological changes
are those that reshape the message on the level of the medium it belongs to. The process of
choosing media1, mediating, and receiving contribute to transforming an original message into
something that can be presented to the mass audience. Human-based factors influence evaluation
and propaganda in the wider meaning of ‘propaganda’. Those factors belong to evaluating,
contextualising, retouching, and other sorts of manipulating information. Finally, there is the aspect
of context. There are plenty of readings of messages and all of them depend on the context to which
information is attributed. Recognising contexts depicts not only the message itself, but primarily the
meaning attached to it in the act of reading.
Press pictures, just as posters, whether propaganda or film, are messages and as such do
undergo these processes as well. Images are pieces of information and are used as such by Media.
Therefore, they should be analysed in the context of a message and mediating. All factors
influencing sending and receiving information partake in the creation of pictures, even if in
different degree than in the creation of a linguistic message. Whether pictorial or linguistic,
messages are texts and may undergo deconstruction, which reveals factors that reshape original
information.
Chapter 1.1 TECHNOLOGY
Messages, linguistic and pictorial ones, describe events chosen by senders. A sender, usually
a journalist2, is the creator of the message, which depicts events in a way intended by the sender.
However, quite often the sender is not present at the event himself and has to rely on information
gathered from witnesses. Moreover, there are a number of steps between senders and receivers,
which a message has to pass. During these steps a message is reshaped even before any ideological
and political changes are added. Pure physical or technological factors of mediating come before
and despite any message manipulation.
Initially, there is nothing more than an event created by external factors (humans, animals,
nature). More often than not, an event occurs in all media forms possible, especially when humans
are involved: linguistic, auditory, visual. However, out of the actions constructing an event only
some are perceived by a witness. It is rarely possible for a single person to observe any event in its
multiplicity and complexity. Sometimes an event is stretched in time or in space. It becomes
indiscernible because its physical features cannot be perceived by human senses. Altogether, an
event is rarely perceived by a witness and fully understood in its complexity. Therefore, the sender
of a message produces a message describing his percept 3 rather than the event itself. Only such a
description is put into words, sounds and images by a journalist; it is not the description of the
“real” event itself.
The next step for a message to go through,
after
being
“recorded”, is being mediated. Mediation
SOURCE
transmitter
receiver DESTINATION
message
message requires some sort of recording and recording is done
received by machines. Today digital cameras and Internet
encode
decode
enable using all media at the same time. As a result
the ideal mediation based on a continuous flow of
signal
signal received
sounds, images, and text becomes possible.
1
2
3
In the thesis, ‘media’ is understood as a collection of means used during sending information; plural of ‘medium’.
noise
source refers to the press, the television, and the Internet.
The capitalised word
‘Media’
For the sake of argumentation, the origin of message is attributed to a (photo)journalist or an artist in the case of
posters.
As used by Price and defined by Webster’s Electronic Dictionary: “the mental result or product of perceiving”.
However, such situations rarely happen4 and usually a sender has either to choose media he prefers,
or he is limited to only one medium available there and then. Therefore, a message created at the
beginning of mediating process has to be altered to fit the medium it is going to use.
Noise is the next factor altering messages.5
E
Although, we tend to believe that professional
E1 M1 sb. (source)
S|E
message sent journalistic equipment is nearly perfect, it is rarely
capable of recording and sending a perfect copy of a
(transmitter)
M2 mech. SE1
message. The world is not a laboratory; hence,
S|SE
signal sent Murphy’s laws have their share in altering messages.
The noise, at the basic level, is caused by the
(receiver)
M3 mech. SSE1
imperfections of mechanical transmitters. Sound and
S|SSE
message received
image deteriorate, to the point when messages
become incomprehensible. The level of noise varies
(destination)
M4 sb. SSSE1
at times and places; however, no matter how
indistinguishable, it is always present.
E - event
After an event is perceived, a message written
E1 - percept of event
down and sent, it has to be received. At this point a
message can become altered purely as a result of
SE - statement about event
technological faults in the receiving equipment.
Usually, the reception of information is not hindered
M sb. - human agent
at all due to the high standard of technological
awareness of television and press; however, it is
M mech. - mechanical agent
possible and sometimes occurs. It is truer of the past
though.6 Finally a message reaches its receiver after
S - the form of the message
being “digested in its digital form” by the receiving
machine. The final product can, therefore, be as
similar to an original message as it can be different from it solely due to technological factors:
media availability and faulty operating machines.
It is also worth remembering that, in the first place, an event can be described by a witness
who relates his memories to a journalist. Psychology shows how incorrect memory becomes. This
incorrect information is related to a journalist who “writes it down” using available media and sends
it forward using the technology at hand. Such a message is transmitted to an editor who only then
may allow its publication. This is a simplified chain, which any linguistic or pictorial message
undergoes before it reaches the reader. There still can be a few other loops in the chain before the
message can rest on editors’ desk such as publishing agencies buying photographs directly and
indirectly from (free-lanced) photographers.
As can be seen from the analysis of technological factors influencing mediation, any
message is never the description of the proper percept of an event. It is obvious in case of linguistic
messages and screenings from the place of action as we sometimes encounter low-quality messages
delivered via television. Usually it is done due to the message impact and importance despite its
technological limitations. The audience, however, rarely considers still images to be as influenced
by technology and mediation as they consider sound and text. Therefore, it is worth remembering
that a photographic camera is just a camera with its limitations, a photojournalist is just a journalist
who deliberately limits his scope of media to one tool, and a picture undergoes a multitude of
clippings, enhancings and retouchings. Moreover, there usually is a major choice of pictures
presenting an event, while only a minor in articles describing it. Such an approach to press
4
5
6
Even the Gulf War during which media had its own testing ground did not see the continuous flow of information
using all three features: sound, image, and linguistic messages. Moreover, this war is believed to be the best
mediated war ever. American soldiers relied as much on television news as on the information provided by their
commanders.
Graphs presented in this chapter come from Price and from Fiske.
The importance of this factor should not be neglected, as pictures tend to deteriorate with coping. A picture’s motif
may easily become unrecognisable due to multiple ‘re-recording’ or coping.
photography depicts its limitations and obvious alterations just as in the case of linguistic messages.
Finally, the text approved by editors reaches the reader in its full splendour. Any image in
newspapers may also lose some of its properties due to the low printing quality of press.
Concluding, mediation of images is a complicated process during which an image may undergo,
although does not have to, significant alterations. Those ‘technological’ and ‘editorial’
modifications should not be neglected as every press photograph is to some extent influenced by
these factors.
Chapter 1.2 THE HUMAN FACTOR AND MEDIA POWER
The analysis of the mediation act of the previous chapter is based on the technological level.
It describes which alterations to a message are prone to happen despite human effort. However,
there are a number of reasons for which a message is reshaped, despite its undisturbed technological
mediation. There are faulty operating machines, but generally information “enhancements” are
caused by human incompatibility with operating systems and machines, and by mistakes, errors,
and even by deliberate actions. Human factor in sending a message can be described twofold as that
pertaining to news creation and to power influence.
The creation of news is a deliberate act aiming at reshaping a story to make an event, and the
message describing it, more interesting. The main purpose of news creation cannot be factuality
itself.
”(...) news [story] is not concerned to provide information as authentically as possible
than to provide it as attractively as possible without jettisoning its reputation for
reliability, responsibility and probity. Authentic and important information may be
‘dull’, factual, difficult to summarise, undramatic and with little immediate appeal, and
there will be an understandable desire to ‘spice’ it, and to package it as attractively and
entertainingly as possible.”7
Surprisingly, people, who hypothetically can be objective and can try to relate messages in
their original form, are the ones who make more significant modifications than technological factor.
At the basic level of creating an image a photojournalist appears to be the sole creator of the
message as ”simply to point the camera is to select”.8 However, real selection and evaluation occur
at the editor’s desk. The choice of an editor is crude: if a message (both linguistic and pictorial) is
not interesting or even enchanting, the reader will not heed it. Therefore some basic rules of news
creation have to be applied. A photograph or a text becomes mediated only when it can be described
by a few of the following points:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
7
8
9
10
After Masterman9, and Beth Edginton and Martin Montgomery10:
Recency - newsworthy materials best consist of recent events that have a clearly
bounded nature;
Frequency - news prefers stories which occur within a daily period of time;
Proximity or Ethnocentricity - the further away an event is from the experience of
the viewer, the more cataclysmic it must be to become news;
Inheritance - once something has hit the headlines and been defined as ”news”, then
it will continue to be defined as news for some time;
Elite - ”about the powerful”;
Masterman. p. 106
Masterman. p. 99
Masterman. p. 94
Price. p. 88
6. Predictability - routine expectations sometimes help to confirm the newsworthiness
of materials;
7. Negativity - ”the best news is bad news”.
Or as John Fiske11 puts it bluntly:
1. Elite;
2. Negative;
3. Recent;
4. Surprising.
However, many photojournalists themselves “operate by a set of what is newsworthy, what
events they think the audience will find interesting”.12 Therefore, a sort of evaluation occurs before
a message has been recorded. Editors, in addition to choosing the most interesting information, may
change or choose between various media of sending the message, rather than confine themselves to
the limitations posed by sender’s choice of media. In order to achieve the greatest influence on
readers, editors commit themselves, therefore, to a few kinds of media manipulation. As described
so far, the first of them is the choice based on newsworthiness.
Another sort of manipulation is more culture specific and is based on the society’s system of
codes. Newspapers as entities want to be read, and so they have to both attract and keep their
readers. Newspapers, and images as their most visible artefacts, accomplish that in a few ways.
Besides being a news-story a message has to comply, at least at the most visible level, with readers’
code system. Readers decode messages just like editors encode them combining various media,
newsworthiness, and ideology. Editors choose the code system they believe to be the most
acclaimed and influential.13 According to C. S. Pierce a sign ”creates in the mind of a person an
equivalent sign, or perhaps a more developed sign.”14 This created sing is the interpretant, which
stands for some object. Therefore, any sign given in a
Sign
message, which is later encoded in the same way by
various viewers, can gather different meanings,
because of the discrepancies in their interpretants.
The issue of prime importance for editors is to find
and use those signs, which bring preferred
interpretants. In a way “the audience is both the
‘source’ and the ‘receiver’ of the message.”15 After
choosing media and applying the rule of
newsworthiness, this is the next level of
Interpretant
Object manipulation of information, which is nothing else
but propaganda.
Propaganda is usually introduced for the advantage of and by the powerful. It is both the
dominant code interwoven in the message and the ‘newsworthy’ choice of press photos which
attempt to influence the way readers conceptualise the world. Such manipulation may ensure the
dominance, as the ‘spiced’ messages seem to be unaltered and hence ‘true’. Therefore, many
sociologists believe that ”the notion of truth and objectivity is an abstraction. Once an item of news
has been selected for transmission to the public there is already bias, some selective principle, some
value, quite apart from the part it is presented. (...) [T]he presentation of events through media (...)
necessarily involves the manipulation of material.”16 In case of some newspapers it would be even
possible to state that not only the powerful and media magnates, but also editors and journalists all
11
12
13
14
15
16
Fiske. p. 96
Price. p. 399
The analysis of this issue is continued according to cultural studies’ theories in chapter 3. Most important
contributions are those written by Gramsci and Eco.
Fiske. p. 42
Hall. “Encoding, Decoding”. p. 509
Masterman. p. 98
partake in creation of propaganda. What they want to achieve, besides high sales, is manipulating
cognition. In Poland a marvellous example of that would be the “beauty contest” held every four
years during the parliamentary elections. What media and the powerful ‘perform’ at the time is ”the
deliberate and systematic attempt to shape perceptions, manipulate cognitions, and direct behaviour
to achieve a response that furthers the desired intent of the propagandist.”17 And rarely is there a
better medium for achieving those aims than well-retouched press photography or a poster.
Finally, press photography can be viewed as a part of a more complex set of messages
constructed of articles and images. As stated earlier, messages are contextualised and evaluated
according to some rules to make them newsworthy. The same rule applies to images presented in
newspapers. However, images are most striking
News Text
when they have a particular motif rather than the
selection of news story components. Here, again,
editors choose what ‘furthers their intent’. A picture
Abstract
Attribution
Story
is usually a description of a main piece of a storymessage: headline, lead, source, place, or time. The
Headline Lead Source Place Time
picture can hardly ever describe all of them. Hence,
any image is just a conscious selection of what a
News
Journalist’s
Episode 1
Episode 2 media producer wishes to show ‘the audience’.
Agency
byline
Usually, the element, which becomes the most
ideologically significant, becomes presented in
Event 1
Event n
pictorial form. In case of Lead (, story itself), it is a
complex task to present it in a still picture. Therefore, a sort of pictorial metonymy is preferred,
when an image of a place of action stands for the event that occurred at that location. The same
applies to presenting time. It is easily seen that an image is much more selective than main
linguistic message. It usually describes only one element of an event, and that element is more often
than not a place or a person in the centre scope of the news story and press articles. Therefore, a
picture is more ‘thought-shaping’ than linguistic messages as it makes a direct, even if crude,
reference to barely one central element. Due to our “believing what we see” we are much more
prone to accept the editor’s choice and agree with the picture’s preferred reading.
These are main ways of reshaping readers’ attitudes through image manipulation, whether
done involuntarily by machines and technology, or by deliberate actions of the human factor. They
can be described under following headings: noise, media choice, evaluation, contextualisation,
misreading and misreporting, political influence, newsworthiness. Some of these, especially the
technological issues, are generally accepted as intrinsic to the act of mediation and are not regarded
as ‘wrong’. However, these limitations usually reshape the final message as much as deliberate
political actions of editors. In addition, one should remember that mediated messages rarely
originate at the same time and place as linguistic messages. It could be stated that many pictures are
‘white lies’ as they present the place, but not the situation, or that they depict the agent, but not the
time. The full understanding of those ‘lies’ comes with understanding to what purpose ideological
manipulation can further those ‘minor’ enhancements. Other ways of intentional reshaping our
cognition of events is generally understood in terms of propaganda. However, it again should be
realised how many of those slight retouchings, clippings, and selections are made ‘on the picture’
before it is published. As a result, a linguistic message is accompanied by highly specialised
pictorial information, reshaped by technology and people, which on the very bases of its inherent
characteristics can be employed as a perfect medium of propaganda. The better it becomes the less
readers realise how ‘spiced’ it has to be before any image is printed in a paper.
Similar rules apply in posters publishing; however, in the case of ordered and planned in
advance images the technological factors play little importance. Generally, only human factor of
evaluating and propaganda are of any importance during their creation. However, just as in the case
of press photography, readers presumably become conscious of propaganda only in the event of war
and political posters. It is more difficult to believe that a simple film poster combines as much of a
17
Price. p. 74
‘preferred’ ideology as any other pictorial message. In truth, posters are the best way of ‘furthering
ones intent’ as they can be planned, verified in practice, retouched as many times as necessary and
delivered to readers in press pictures or wall posters. They can be seen on television and in the
cinema as well. Posters are placed indoors and outdoors, they are left at our house pathways, in our
workplace. They have also another advantage over press – they cannot be switched off or turned
over. A poster ‘is’ and therefore ‘has to be’ viewed. Again, as with the press picture, the better it
serves the propagandist the less readers realise how ‘spiced’ it has to be before it is displayed. The
less consciously we approach images, the more susceptible to their power we become.
Chapter 1.3 A FEW WORDS ON READING – WHICH CONTEXT IS THE RIGHT ONE
Any speech act, whether of a witness, a
journalist, or a newsreader, can gather multiple
meanings according to various levels of ‘reading’ the
utterance. These acts of communication in case of
Available Discourse
press are as well pictorial; and hence, the rule of
multiple readings should be applied to images as
Immediate Context
well. A picture, which is just a text, has its origin in a
Event
reported event. This event has its immediate context
created by the people involved in it. However, the
discourse, which can be applied in the analysis of an
event, is usually a broader understanding of the affair
without limiting oneself to its immediate judgement. Nevertheless, press rarely bases its discourse
on the available codes and ideologies, as media is always political. What editors choose and
propagate is usually propaganda, whether that of the dominant, negotiated or opposing discourse.
However, a professional propaganda is aware that “meaning is always a social production, a
practice [, and that] the world has to be made to mean.”18 Therefore, press attempts at combining
social discourse into dominant one so that social context is at list partially reflected in the politicised
message. Nevertheless, “meaning is determined by the social context in which it is attributed.” 19 A
well-produced picture may attribute meaning to ‘the only and correct context’.
Multiplicity of discourses in the society is its physical feature. No nation voices its opinions
in unison. There is plenty of codes, systems of beliefs, cultural myths, and ideologies. They
constitute the society as an ever-changing and self-developing entity. Physical and inherent as this
feature may be it is of prime importance for deliberate manipulation of cognition. Presenting
information, via choice of press photographs, may modify the context, hence, the reading and
readers’ attitude towards individuals, subcultures, behaviours, or the event itself. In this way, pure
physicality of communication and learning about the world can be put forward as a means of
propaganda. The notion of codes, mythology, and propaganda is the base for the analysis of
ideology in images in chapter 3. Manipulation springs from technological features of mediation as it
attempts to remain invisible, as if a part of technological process of producing information.
Social Context
Dominant Discourse
18
19
Storey. p. 21. after Hall
Storey after Volosinov. p. 20.
Chapter 2 MEANING AND SIGNS – “THE TRUTH IS OUT THERE”
Chapter 1 analysed the technological transformations a linguistic and pictorial message
undergoes. These modifications of information are in part caused by the physicality of the act of
mediation, which is based on (unintentionally faulty) machines. In part, the modifications are
caused by people who re-write and reorganise original messages deliberately. Those changes are
introduced for two main purposes. The first is ‘high sales’. Every newspaper wants to sell well and
so it tries to attract readers with pictures that are easy to spot and to remember. The second reason is
the attempt to ‘further a desired intent’ of the powerful and their dominant code. While chapter 1
deals with technological modifications of messages, chapter 3 analyses ideological changes. Those
variations introduced to messages are based on the encoding and decoding of signs, which images
undoubtedly are. Therefore, this chapter presents a handful of linguistic and cultural studies theories
concerning sings, codes, and myths in order to expose how a (pictorial) message may be reevaluated and retouched in the propaganda process.
There are a number of theories concerning language, which can be readily applied in the
analysis of images. Images, to a large extent, are read just as any linguistic message. One of the
major differences is arbitrariness of images. The image of a dog is similar to a dog. However, a
word dog like the word pies have nothing in common with the object described by them. “The
linguistic sign (...) possesses none properties of the
thing represented, whereas, the visual sign appears to
possess some of those properties.”20 Images,
however, only seem to be as arbitrary as we think.
Culture specific perception constitutes a significant
part of every act of reading an image. There is no
picture of a dog in Plato’s understanding. There are
only images of particular animals, but not of their
idea or of the ideal form. A word is not specific but
rather a general description, and may readily imply
Plato’s idea of a dog; whereas, a picture will bring
direct denotations and connotations according to the
particular characteristics of a dog presented. There is also additional information describing place,
time, and people. An image of a dog may seem to present just the animal, but in truth a picture is a
collection of signs that create a pictorial message. Therefore, linguistic theories should be applied to
reading images in order to uncover pictures’ constituents.
Chapter 2.1 FERDINAND DE SAUSSURE AND CLAUDE LÉVI-STRAUSS – SIGNIFIER, SIGNIFIED, AND
BINARY OPPOSITION
De Saussure postulated the difference between langue and parole, between the system of
communication and a particular utterance based on that system. This was a breakthrough approach
to the analysis of texts as it set a new understanding of communication systems as consisting of
langue, parole, and signs. He also devised a way of understanding linguistic signs used in parole.
He divided every sign into its shape – signifier, and
SIGN
its meaning – signified. As trivial as it may seem,
Saussure’s elements
that discovery enables a thorough analysis of
of meaning
messages as constructed of their physical entity and
composed of
of their meaning in a reader’s mind. He later
developed that notion in his postulate that “there is
SIGNIFICATION
no natural or inevitable link between the signifier and
signifier + signified
external
(physical
(mental
reality or
20
Hall. “Encoding, Decoding”. p. 512
existence)
concept)
meaning
the signified.”21 The theory may be used for all systems of communication and does not limit itself
to the language as de Saussure devised it. There is as much (if not more) meaning in a picture as in
a word, as they are both signs in a system of communication (language cognition, and image
perception respectively).
The division of a sign into signifier and signified forwards the understanding of multiple
readings. The sign may be one (an image of a dog), but it can have many culture specific meanings
(fighting dogs, puppies, guarding dogs, friendship, a pack of wolves). As a result “signs do not
possess a fixed or essential meaning.”22 The idea of signified assumes readers’ own choice of the
meaning they attach to the message received. A pictorial message may seem to give a much more
specific meaning than a single word; however, this is due to the complex construction of an image
built on multiple signs involved ‘in the frame’. Nevertheless, a picture can be read as a single sign
with its signifier and reader-based signified.
Claude Lévi-Strauss furthered the Saussurean understanding of language as a system of
signs. He promoted the idea of binary oppositions. According to him, there is a structure of
meanings, which are understood (and built) on the basis of opposition. Every sign and the meaning
behind it have their oppositional sign and meaning. In other words signs “are members of a system
and are defined in relation to other members of that system.”23 The idea is not as influential in the
‘writing’ of a message as it is in the cognitive reading of it. Lévi-Strauss claimed that our
understanding and conceptualising are based on reading every sign only in categories + or -, day or
night, good or evil, or other similar oppositions. He also postulated that people living in one culture
use the same system of values and, hence, have a similar understanding of the world through using
the same system of binary oppositions. As different cultures create various systems of binary
oppositions constituting their system of cognitive perception the understanding of a message varies
between cultures.
Even though Lévi-Strauss’ idea is inherently wrong through over-simplification, it does to
some extent reflect the processes used by everyday readers. Pictures are too often analysed in the
same way as Westerns. Events presented in press pictures may be categorised, like in classical
Hollywood cinema, according to Lévi-Strauss’ binary opposition of good and evil. Such reading
can be explained in two ways. Firstly, they are effortless. Attaching meaning to signs becomes
uncomplicated, as a picture can be either positive or negative. It also helps readers in the swift
organising of their conceptual image of the world. Secondly, a previously known sign and its
meaning are applied as a reference point for the reading and understanding of a newly encountered
sign. What is new can be quickly compared to the known and judged as possessing similar qualities
or being in opposition to ‘the already-known’. In this way any message becomes readily categorised
as positive or negative. Reading images and any text by using such a technique is an immense oversimplification; however, many readers do approach texts (whether linguistic or pictorial) in this way
due to its simplicity and (even if faulty) effectiveness.
Chapter 2.2 UMBERTO ECO, ROLAND BARTHES, STUART HALL – CODES, MYTHS,
IDEOLOGY
21
22
23
Hall. Representation. p 31
Hall. Representation. p 31
Hall. Representation. p. 31
AND
Eco challenged Lévi-Strauss’ assumption in a perfectly ordered reading based on a
simplified binary opposition, which would apply to all ‘citizens’ of a culture. To the whole idea of
signs, parole and langue, and binary opposition, he added the new idea of (sub)cultural codes.24 Eco
brought together cultural studies and linguistics in
order to describe the process of reading a message.
He associated reading messages with cultural codes
of various groups and classes within the society.
The whole process of mediating information then
requires encoding and decoding a message by using
one of many systems omnipresent in the society.
These systems are created and belong not to a
culture but to a number of subcultures within that
culture. These processes of subcultural reading are
vital for the understanding of Eco’s influence on
the theory of perception. This theory enlarges LéviStrauss’ belief in decoding as dependant on the
binary opposition convention a viewer applies. Eco
gives a reader a wider choice of subcultural codes
than Lévi-Strauss would probably imagine.
Eco envisages that we all use various kinds
of subcultural codes in mediating information. We
conceptualise the world and comprehend it not according to Lévi-Strauss’s binary oppositions, but
according to codes we have been brought into, we choose, we meet with at work... Those codes can
be cultural, national, traditional, hegemonic, and subcultural. Every person employs a different set
of codes in the process of decoding messages; hence, there can be various interpretations of the
same piece of information. Unfortunately for the press, this also means that “the codes of encoding
and decoding cannot be perfectly symmetrical.”25 As a result, no message, whether linguistic or
(allegedly more universal) pictorial, will be read in accordance with the ‘propagandist’s’ desire.
Together with discoveries of Gramsci, Eco’s theory constitutes a core for ideological reading of
signs and for discovering that ideology if hidden.26
Eco’s theory of subcultural variations in reading messages is usually presented on the
example of a message informing about a strike. The dominant, negotiated, and opposing decodings
attach their own meanings to the same information. The dominant code belongs to the powerful and
rulers; negotiated to upper and middle classes often pejoratively called the bourgeoisie; the
oppositional to the proletariat, lower classes, extremists,
criminals, and terrorists. A strike is approached
differently by various groups according to the code they
apply. A press picture of a British policeman escorting a
neo-fascist may therefore have negative and positive
readings according to codes used by the readers of the
image.27 Codes reflect their users’ system of beliefs as
well as those beliefs are reflected in the codes. Therefore,
a crafty image encoded according to particular
subculture’s code may be used as a marvellous means of
influencing specific groups of society. A message is more
24
25
26
27
After Strinati ch. 3 “Strukturalizm, semiologia i kultura popularna”.
Hall. “Encoding, Decoding”. p. 510
Although Gramsci wrote his essay before Althusser and Eco, the adjourned publication and influence of his work
may be analysed as belonging to the period of post-war studies.
Another reading may be presented by Barthes’ mythological approach. The picture might be deconstructed into
symbols of pre-war order and peace vs. post-war disruption brought by youth cultures. The hidden ideological
message of the picture-sign would then be ‘nostalgia for the lost England and the golden age’.
likely to influence readers when it is encoded in a similar code to that used by readers.
Roland Barthes began his theories of perception as a structuralist. However, the more he
studied codes and messages that used them, the more he surpassed the ideas of de Saussure and
Lévi-Strauss. On top of langue, parole, sign (with its signifier and signified), and code, Barthes
placed the notion of cultural myth. He believed that our cognition is governed by self reestablishing mythology of cultural beliefs.28 Everything we ‘take for granted’ as part of our culture
is such a myth. We do not try to de-falsify or prove those myths right due to our (sub)conscious
belief in culture as a pure and stable set of unquestionable values. However, there are many cultures
and many culture-specific truths, and they are all based on particular mythologies. 29 Thus,
understanding the process of reading as the process of reading cultural myths makes every
mediation culture specific.30 However, an attentive reading can also enable readers to reveal those
myths and read the message and the myths on their own. Barthes allowed us to see a message for
what it is and to sift out myths from what only seems to be unbreakable and coherent information.
According to Barthes, it is a mythology that we base our understanding of the world on. A
collection of myths used by a society or a subculture “is the turning point of the cultural and the
historical into the natural, the taken-for-granted.”31 Mythology helps readers in the swift
comprehension of the world just as binary opposition does. Nevertheless, the over-generalisation
that encompasses a binary oppositional reading can never be as influential as a deliberate
manipulation of mythology. Myths are set of meanings and beliefs and as such influences the whole
process of cognition and not only that of the elements of external reality. What should be
understood as an improper use of mythology is both over-interpretation on the part of the reader,
and the deliberate use of myths in constructing messages in order to ‘further one’s intent’.32 Myths
are usually used by members of a culture to communicate information in a coherent and succinct
way without time-consuming questioning of the myth or the information. The strength of a myth lies,
therefore, in its widespread acclaim. Any use of mythology other than in an efficient act of
communication may be understood as propaganda, whether in a positive or negative form. 33
The notion of cultural beliefs shaping our cognition is much older than Barthes’ theory and
it finds one of its best explanations in Francis Bacon’s essays. Although, Bacon’s theories have
been developed or even surpassed in the following centuries e.g. by Barthes, the clarity of his
writings is remarkable. The improper interpretation of the world by a false usage of mythology
finds its origin in Bacon’s description of what he calls “idols”.
Francis Bacon differentiated four idols, basic mistakes, we are prone to make, because of
which we misinterpret reality and the signs describing it.34 These idols are still at work. We tend to
believe in what is implied by messages (and the powers behind them) without thinking about what
an article or an image really (re)presents. We also neglect basic principles of conscious perception
by ‘taking things for granted’ - we assume that the truths we are told and shown in press are our
truths. “Seeing is believing” finds a crude critic in Bacon.
Francis Bacon’s description of Idols:
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
Barthes. Mythologies.
Polish culture, for examples, thrives on the myth of a lonely Polish soldier defending the whole world against all
evil powers. Another myth propagated by literature classes in schools is the martyrology of the whole Polish nation
throughout the history.
The idea of cultural myths re-establishing themselves, which are subconsciously used by readers may be also
ascribed to Jung. His archetypes illustrate a similar issue of psychological recurrent concepts throughout cultures.
Storey. p. 16. after Barthes
In chapters 2 and 4 there are numerous examples of press pictures as well as war and film posters, the
deconstruction of which demonstrates the deliberate use of myths as a means of influence.
A positive propaganda occurs when information is not mediated due to its context exciding generally accepted
moral or aesthetic values. Violent or sexually abusive messages are re-written or are not mediated at all with the
consent of the majority. Such contextualising, evaluating, and clipping are regarded as positive despite obvious
similarities to ‘furthering one’s intent’ via Media.
The following passage and the description of Bacon’s idols after Price. p. 59
1. idols of the tribe - internal attributes, which are founded in human nature itself, and
which therefore cannot be avoided nor altered;
5. idols of the cave - internal factors but peculiar to an individual, which include his/her
character, education, personality, etc;
6. idols of the market-place - external influences which refer to the fact that people
enter into conversation or discourse, learning the linguistic signs for things before
they come to know them through their own experience;
7. idols of the theatre - external in character, referring to the dependence of human
beings on the systems of beliefs, on ways of interpreting the world, which they have
inherited from previous generations (what fairly accurately agrees with Barthes’
description of cultural myths).
Bacon’s judgement of oversimplified reading and accepting every single aspect of
mythology we live in is powerful and obtrusive. A similar conclusion is reached by Barthes, who
states that information should first be falsified or proved, understood in its mythological context and
only then accepted. Otherwise, as both Bacon and Barthes conclude, what we read is not only
information, but also “pure and unadulterated bias”35.
Moreover, Barthes developed further the notion of a sign. Besides its components - signifier
and signified - Barthes developed the idea of denotation and connotation. These may be associated
with the natural and obvious reading, and the more
SIGN
connotation
subjective reading respectively. Combining Eco’s
idea of (sub)cultural codes and discourses, every
composed of
sign gains a new depth in Barthes’ theory. From
ideology
now on, signs can be written according to readers’
mythology
codes and myths by using a particular (sub)cultural
system of values. This enables the press to
signifier + signified
external influence readers on a new ideological level –
SIGNIFICATION
(physical
(mental
reality or
mythology. However, it is virtually impossible to
existence)
concept)
meaning
encompass all codes of a society within one
of the sign)
message; hence, some aberrant decoding will
always be present. The greater the variety of codes in society, the more misreadings a message will
suffer. In one of his essays Barthes described this phenomenon as “the birth of the reader [which]
must be at the cost of the death of the Author”36. Inevitably, the number of codes in modern society
becomes so complex that the best thing readers can do is to read a message according to their
individual codes and myths. As a result, no one can any longer tell which meaning is the correct
meaning. Signs from arbitrary messages become polysemous signifiers. The signified, denoted and
connoted belong to readers themselves just as de Saussure prophesised a century earlier. However,
as in the case of Eco’s subcultural codes, a canny usage of Mythology while creating a message
may direct readers towards preferred conclusions. The war posters presented in chapter 4 are a
collection of this kind of propaganda. Film posters are often created according to similar principles
and this can be seen in the collection in chapter 4.
Before concluding the chapter with the theories of ‘ideology’ and ‘hegemony’ devised by
Louis Althusser and Gramsci it is worth noting how reading has changed through the theories of the
writers presented. Stuart Hall describes the shift in understanding the process of mediating
according to three approaches: reflective, intentional, and constructivist. With the introduction of
theories by de Saussure, Lévi-Strauss, Eco, and Barthes the act of reading came to be increasingly
based on the individual receiver of a message. Thus, any information has to be encoded according
to readers’ systems of decoding rather than according to senders’ codes if the sender desires to
influence or manipulate readers effectively. Only then is manipulation of information enabled when
the encoding of text may further preferred decoding and meaning. However, to allow such action,
theories of reading messages had to evolve from a reflective to a constructive approach.
35
36
Goodwin and Whannel. p. 42
Barthes. Image Music Text. p. 148
The reflective (or mimetic) approach, as Stuart Hall describes it,37 occurs when meaning is
thought to “lie in the object, person, idea or event in the real world”. In such a case signs and codes
‘mirror or reflect the true meaning as it already exists in the world’. At a basic level of reading
pictures, they seem to “reflect” the world. The intentional approach assumes that speakers or
authors impose their unique meaning on the world through language. Thus, at a deeper level of
reading pictures, it becomes obvious that even ‘objective’ pictures apply to the rule that “simply to
point the camera is to choose.”38 Words mean what the author intends them to mean. Finally, this
reasoning was challenged by Barthes, who brought inevitable ‘death’ to authors. As a result, the
constructivist approach that relies completely on the reader evolved. The meaning is supplied by
readers, by their knowledge of the world and the codes they use while comprehending (pictorial)
messages. In spite of readers’ importance this approach allows the greatest hidden manipulation. As
Stuart Hall writes “neither things in themselves nor the individual users of language can fix
meaning in language. Things do not mean: we construct meaning, using representational system –
concepts and signs39. (...) We must not confuse the material world, where things and people exist,
and the symbolic practices and processes through which representation, meaning, and language
operate. (...) It is not the material world which conveys meaning: it is the language system or
whatever system we are using to represent concepts. (...) The meaning depends not on the material
quality of signs, but on its symbolic function.”40 A professional manipulation of codes and
mythologies may, therefore, direct readers towards particular conclusions. Readers who believe
they reached particular conclusion on their own will defend their values more fiercely than if the
conclusions were simply given to them.
“The meaning is not in object or person or thing, nor it is in the word. It is we who fix the
meaning so firmly that, after a while, it comes to seem natural and inevitable. The meaning is
constructed by the system of representation.”41 The constructivist approach, based on Barthes’
cultural mythology, forwards propagandistic manipulation despite the independence with which the
theory bestows readers. Our understanding of the world, our cognitive approach to reality may be
hindered by the mythological misinterpretation devised by a propagandist. As a result ‘we’ can be
‘framed’ into a particular trait of reasoning, and hence particular connotations and conclusions. This
is where ideology and mythology may manipulate readers with the greatest efficiency while
remaining invisible.
Ideas, mainly springing from linguistics, varying from such diverse scholars as de Saussure
or Stuart Hall, explain the method of reading and misreading of signs and messages. The analysis of
images with the use of these theories depicts where manipulation can hinder readers’ usage of
codes, myths, or ideologies. The ideological reading constitutes the theoretical factor present in
reading signs (i.e. messages) existing side by side with technical factors (described in chapter 1).
Together, those two factors may cause misreadings and allow manipulation. However, the analysis
of those factors still does not include the actual usage of ideology and myths in ‘furthering one’s
intent’, nor does it describe how propaganda works. Those issues, based on earlier theories of
reading signs, are dealt with in the next part of the thesis.
Chapter 2.3 LOUIS ALTHUSSER, GRAMSCI – MARX REVISITED
Although Marx is believed to be a social philosopher, many of his ideas concern the very act
of mediating the will of the powerful, spread of ideology. His ideas concentrate on the belief that
the powerful choose their system of values (code) as the only right one and implement it by socioeconomic pressure on other groups of society. In this way they create the dominant and oppositional
codes of those who govern and of those who are governed (and oppressed). Eco expanded on this
37
38
39
40
41
The following paragraph is based on Stuart Hall, Representation, pp. 24-25
Masterman. p. 99
underlining mine
Hall. Representation. p.25
Hall. Representation. p. 21
rather simplified division by describing the negotiated code, the hegemonic idea of hypodermic
needle42, and subcultural variations of all major codes (dominant, negotiated, oppositional). The
following development of Marx’s theories belongs to Althusser’s theory of ideology at work.
Althusser defined the struggle between the codes (and their users) in terms of ideology. His
idea finally comprises earlier theories of signs, mythologies, and codes in one theory describing
practical usage of these. As Althusser describes it, a system of beliefs is introduced in every society
arbitrarily and is mediated in schools, in the press, and in everyday language. However, it is created,
according to Althusser, only to subdue working classes to the power and will of the few that govern
the masses. The whole system of codes, ‘proper’ encoding and decoding, mythology, and desired
connotations together build up something that Althusser generally defines as ‘ideology’.
According to Althusser, ideology is not only a set of values, but primarily it is a process of
implementing them. It is also the actions (mental and physical) we take to impose it on others. This
understanding of ideology can be easily found in the behaviour of various twentieth-century tyrants
such as Stalin or Hitler. They devised and used a system of codes and readings of particular signs
together with actions promoting those systems in order to banish all other ideologies and gain
ultimate power. Here, Marx returns, as he was the first to postulate so clearly in modern times that
ideology is power if used without hesitation. This power and influence can be achieved solely
through promoting a ‘proper’ ideology, which later re-establishes itself within the society.
Surprisingly, ideology does not require an impressive spectacle to promote itself as it can be
conveyed piece by piece in every sign (i.e. message) in our surroundings. ”Messages are socially
produced in particular circumstances and made culturally available as shared explanations of how
the world works. In other words, they are ‘ideologies’, explanatory systems of belief.” 43 As
Althusser explains it, a message is ideology in itself! There does not have to be some outside or
external myth. An image can convey or create its own desired readings, and hence, preferred
meanings. According to the constructivist approach a reader is the only source of meaning in the
message. However, readers’ understanding is governed by myths and ideologies. If a sign can
convey its own or dominant ideology, it promotes a preferred reading, which in time can manipulate
readers. There is a long process between creating a message and ideological reading; however, in
the case of the reading as described by Althusser, the final control gained over ideologically shaped
readers is immense. Again, twentieth-century history proves such analysis right.
According to Althusser, Barthes, and Eco, we are born into a particular ideology from which
we cannot escape. It can only be shaken off with great effort from a conscious and reflective mind.
This seems to be the only way of freeing oneself from manipulation – the conscious analysis of
informational ‘input’. However, opposing dominant ideology does not mean being free from any
ideology. Althusser concludes that we simply choose between sets of values and their ideographic
representations. We always live in some sort of ideology and through it we conceptualise the world
and its messages. Whether we belong to dominant, negotiated, or opposing discourse, we always
live in ideology. Ideology as part of cultured cognition is inescapable for a thinking being.
However, it is one’s own choice of ideology that defines individual cognitive abilities.
One of the basic examples of ideology at work evolving from Althusser’s theory is the
analysis of advertisements.44 As he postulates, advertisements cannot promote ‘products’ in the first
place. To be efficient they cannot even promote ‘buying products’. Primarily, advertisements have
to promote ‘buying’; they have to offer ‘consumerism’. Only after believing that ‘to live a good
life’ means to ‘live a consumer’s life’ is it possible for an advert to promote a product. In this
manner, advertisements do not promote products themselves, but rather they promote a system of
beliefs from which producers gain profit. The same theory applies to analysing schools and
universities where we are taught how to live in society and how to obediently follow somebody
else’s orders. Only later do educational institutions spread knowledge after placing our traits of
42
43
44
Eco’s hypodermic needle describes a situation, which requires a perfect symmetry between encoding and decoding
as only such an ideal situation would allow perfect communication and perfect manipulation.
Goodwin and Whannel. p. 60
Strinati. p. 126
thought and behaviour in a socially acceptable frame. At least, that is what Althusser describes in
his theory. At that point a question arises: what ideology, if any, is forced into messages we receive
via Media? A source of the answer is the ‘information chain’ and its application as described in
chapter 5.
Gramsci like Eco discussed ideology in terms of opposing powers and class struggle. He
divided the society according to codes used by particular groups: dominant, negotiated, and
opposing. However, Gramsci presented the feature of class/group tensions in a new way. After
Marx, He claimed that all groups struggle to gain power and that they use their ideologies to those
ends. However, according to Gramsci, codes are negotiated between groups and the ideology that is
capable of comprising in itself most of the powerful codes of the society prevails in the community
and becomes the code of the ruling group. Moreover, in contrast to Althusser’s theory, the dominant
ideology of the ruling classes does not have to be negative in the understanding of other ideologies.
The dominant ideology becomes hegemonic in the sense that it reshapes itself as the most
influential and acceptable of all other ideologies. The ideology re-establishes itself all over again in
order to maintain power through consensus. To a certain extent, it is also accepted even by those
who comprehend the world according to opposing codes. Dominant and hegemonic ideology does
not oppose other ideologies but rather tries to comprise them or their parts in order to further its
own influence, in order to prevail. In that situation consensus is reached and that is the power of
hegemony in Gramsci’s theory. The dominant ideology does not have to oppress as Marx and
Althusser supposed.
Gramsci’s theory, combined with the writings of Eco, presents a new world of codes and
ideologies working side by side despite their inherent differences. The vision of ideologies at work
is reshaped, as codes used by dominant, negotiating and opposing groups are mediated between
them. After mingling all of them, a group ‘wins’ in the quest for power by being the most versatile
and acceptable and not only powerful or threatening. Dominant and hegemonic is not, therefore, the
ideology of the oppressor but that of the ruler accepted, even if not chosen, by a general consensus
in society. All other codes still exist and are used by subcultures or other classes; however, they do
not necessarily combat one another openly. Hegemony is achieved by consensus and not
oppression.
Gramsci’s theory of ‘peaceful’ hegemony finds its confirmation in film posters.
Surprisingly, this medium of communication uses a number of myths and ideologies of the society,
and re-establishes them to assure citizens that the world is still ‘safe’, is still ‘the same’. They also
promote products in Althusser’s understanding. At the first level they advertise films, while at
deeper levels they promote ‘the only and proper ideology’ of the ruling classes. Such an approach to
film posters is presented in one of the analysis in chapter 6. Similar traits can be found in some
press photographs, which also attempt to further hegemony before all other society’s ideologies.
The last important issue postulated by Gramsci and Althusser alike is the distribution of
ideology. They agree with Marx’s idea of school indoctrination. We are born into ideology in our
homes and later we are brought up ideologically at nurseries, schools, and universities. Marx added
religion-ideology as a means of subduing working classes by encompassing within the opposing
ideology (of the working class) the belief of being weaker and rightfully outwitted by the dominant
ideology and the powerful. Gramsci and Althusser find another tool of indoctrination, namely
media. Nothing is so prevailing in our society as the overwhelming omnipresence of press and
television. Radio has lost its leading role in that contest; however, it is still an important factor in
putting forward ‘the only right way of thinking’. Gramsci and Althusser, and Eco to a considerable
extent as well, agree that pop culture becomes the most influential power in re-shaping ideologies as
well as in maintaining the division of powers between three main codes. Pop culture becomes the
most influential in promoting ideologies for a number of reasons. One of them is over-national and
over-subcultural range of pop receivers. Another may be Western culture consumerism. Generally,
pop culture belongs to Western culture, which complies with the stereotype of the ‘good buyer’.
Consumption becomes essential for pop and ideology behind it. Western Europe and North America
have thrived only thanks to continuous growth and unceasing selling. Hence, pop is the best mean
of re-establishing hegemony as it not only promotes it but also becomes equal with it.
Chapter 2.4 CONCLUSION
“Things in themselves rarely if ever have any more single, fixed and unchanging
meaning. (...) It is by our use of things, and what we say, think and feel about them –
how we represent them – that we give them a meaning. In part, we give objects, people
and events meaning by the framework or interpretation which we bring them. (...) In
part we give things meaning by how we represent them.”45
This passage by Stuart Hall arrives at a versatile conclusion of such diverse approaches to
reading and mediating as those presented in the whole of chapter 4. After all, as Hall concludes, it is
‘we’, readers, who frame signs into particular meanings. However, due to the widespread acclaim of
cultural myths and ideological indoctrination, we are prone to become framed ourselves into
particular beliefs and behaviour. Paraphrasing Hall, ‘we give things meanings by how they are
presented to us’. Propaganda is “the deliberate and systematic attempt to shape perceptions,
manipulate cognitions, and direct behaviour to achieve a response that furthers the desired intent of
the propagandist”.46 It is not only the polite ‘asking to take part in a war’ as in the case of (some)
war posters. Propaganda is and can be found in our omnipresent pop culture, in media, in schools,
or even in the workplace as Althusser and Gramsci declare. Chapter 5 attempts to describe and
analyse the process of mediation to discover where in the information chain manipulation actually
takes place. The methods which propaganda may use find their base in the choice and application of
codes, myths, discourses, and ideologies (chapter 3). Just like images, they are nothing more but the
ways of representing, hence, shaping the world.
45
46
Hall. Representation. p. 3
Price. p. 74
Chapter 3 DECONSTRUCTING THE INFORMATION CHAIN
This chapter of the thesis aims at discovering methods in which underlying culture specific
features may be built into pictorial messages. Those methods are represented by various levels of
the information chain a message passes on its way from a sender to a reader. It also attempts at
postulating a particular chain of ideological relations present in reading those messages. As
analysed in previous chapters, any message is influenced by three main factors: technical, human,
and ideological. Every message is sent via a medium, which through its imperfection imposes some
misreporting, or even errors in the process of mediating. The following factor of human
involvement in reshaping information, however, is of even greater impact. Unfortunately, Western
Culture citizens are driven by money and power, and struggle for these is reflected both in messages
and in re-writing messages. The powerful want to prolong their supremacy and enhance income
(which in itself is just an ideology) brings those ‘desperate’ leaders to the verge of propaganda or
event much further beyond the good taste of any manipulation. They do it using mythologised
propaganda, which is based on cultural manipulation of information. From the advent of
photography and the emerging of pictorial representation of the world in press47, images have
become a perfect tool in the propaganda machine. Finally, although ‘we’ as readers are the sole
source of the meaning attached to a message, ‘we’ become bereft of freedom of thought through
propagandists’ use of manipulation of cultural mythologies. Readers only ‘believe’ their reading is
independent while in reality it is substantially directed towards ‘proper’ conclusions. The
description and graphic representation of that process is the core idea of this chapter.
At the basic level the audience believes that what is presented in media is truth or directly
relates to that truth. Often, that is the case; however, the truth has many faces and more often than
readers expect manipulation takes place. The simplest informational chain, in perfect conditions,
would be a simple act of mediating an event by a sender of a message directly to the receiver.
EVENT
SENDER / MESSAGE
RECEIVER
However, rarely does it happen that a sender of the message is present when the event
occurs. Most of the events are not planned like parliamentary discussions or organised
demonstrations. As a result, the sender usually comes to the front when an event has already taken
place: outbreak of violence, overthrowing of governments, floods, fires, and accidents. In case of
press photographs, images usually present effects of an event rather than its causes or the event
itself.
EVENT
SENDER / MESSAGE
RECEIVER
TIME GAP
The time
gap causes some serious limitations to mediating messages (generally characterised in chapter 1).
Those limitations can be referred to as technological. Because of the time gap the sender (, usually a
journalist,) is limited to particular sources of information; he cannot use the most preferable media
(technology). If there is nothing left to photograph, the message will have to be purely linguistic. If
there is no witness, the whole relation of an event will be based on the sender’s assumptions and
conclusions rather than the real event’s incidents. To some extent the notion of noise (chapter 1.1)
can influence a message even before it is ‘written down’. In case of press photography the time gap
results in presenting images in newspapers, which only partially ‘describe’ an event. For instance,
they may depict the place or the person but at another time. A slight ‘white lie’, however, it is
already some sort of manipulation of information.
47
It is only the 20th century, which saw evolution of press from linguistic medium to textual medium (based on
written language, press photography, pictures, posters, pictorial advertisements, and on attached olfactory
messages). The beginning years of 1920s experienced first “big” press advertising campaigns - some as much as
eight pages long! Before, papers relied solely on written word only vaguely supported by rudimentary pictures.
(after Williams: 418)
EVENT
MEDIA AVAILABLE
A
sender
builds his message
SENDER
out
of sources and
media available, not those desired or essential for a particular event. Hence, his message is limited
by environment he does not control. Therefore, if the event due to ‘technological factors’ and time
gap becomes unattainable, the message cannot reflect what really took place. Next, a sender
forwards the message; however, information is never mediated directly to the receiver, but rather to
the editor. The sender has to choose what media or how many of them to use in creating a message
for the editor. Senders’ actions may be again influenced by their ideological beliefs and by the
technological factor.
SENDER
MEDIA AVAILABLE
text (written)
text (spoken)
image (still)
image (moving)
sound
some or all of the above combined
Later, at
editor’s
desk the
EDITOR
message
undergoes further changes. Those are done due to the nature of newsworthiness. Any event has to
posses specific features in order to become a message worthy of mediating (chapter 1.2). It has to
become a news story. Editor’s job is to create such an atmosphere around any message he receives
even if in itself it does not possess news’ traits. If a message is not interesting and engrossing the
audience will not heed it eventually. Moreover, the message has to comply with ‘political
correctness’ of the editor’s and dominant group’s codes. In its messages press ”communicates
meanings, values, and beliefs”48 preferred by information manipulator – the powerful49. Therefore,
editors change or choose between various media of sending the message rather than confine
themselves to the limitations posed by sender’s choice of media. Final image corresponding to an
article may originate in an entirely different source from that of the article (chapter 1.2). It is often
the case of press photographs, which come from archives and are attached to newly written articles.
the
EDITOR
EDITING
choosing out of senders message
clipping
adding
evaluating
text (written)
contextualising
text (spoken)
image (still)
image (moving)
sound
some or all of the above combined
MEDIA AVAILABLE
MESSAGE
Eventually, such a worked-on message, what possible hardly describing the event itself,
reaches the receiver. However, it is vital to remember Barthes’ “The Death of the Author” as due to
48
49
Goodwin and Whannel. p. 60
Or as Goodwin and Whannel put it, mass communication presents nothing but pure and unadulterated bias
(paraphrase from p. 42)
its postulations the mediating chain event-sender-receiver is prolonged by one more link. It is
readers, who after receiving a message decode it on their own according to individual sets of
‘beliefs’. Readers use the general knowledge of the world to comprehend what the message
attempts to mediate. Their knowledge and cognition are based on Eco’s, Althusser’s, Gramsci’s,
and Barthes’ codes, ideologies, and myths. Readers may read information according to what editor
wants them to; however, ‘perfect symmetry between encoding and decoding’ is challenged by Eco’s
description of hypodermic needle. A more realistic view accepts at least partial freedom of thought
of readers and gives them some choice between codes, myths, and ideologies they wish to apply.
MESSAGE
IDEOLOGY
dominant code
negotiated code
oppositional code
hegemonic code
subcultural code
hypodermic needle
Therefore,
a
following chain
of
relations present
in mediating a message should be considered more applicable to the simplified event-senderreceiver chain. It attempts to comprise all the factors influencing mediating, manipulating, and
(mythologised) reading. As analysed in chapter 1, pictorial messages may be as much manipulated
during mediation as any linguistic sign. Therefore, this chain should apply to ‘sending’ press
photographs and creating of posters, whether propaganda or film placards.
RECEIVER
EVENT
TIME GAP
MEDIA AVAILABLE 1
SENDER = MESSAGE WRITTEN DOWN
MEDIA AVAILABLE 2
EDITOR = MESSAGE PREPARED
EDITING
MEDIA AVAILABLE 3
IDEOLOGY
RECEIVER = MESSAGE RECEIVED AND READ
Nevertheless, this chain still follows the same mistake as the basic event-sender-receiver
pattern. It assumes that each factor works only at one link of the chain. It also continuous to neglect
the significance of the audience’s act of reading, only in which a message becomes decoded and
understood according to individual and constructive approach (chapter 3.2). Moreover, it is clearly
visible that e.g. ‘media available’ factor, although different each time, is at work all the time and not
only in one loop of the chain. The same rule applies to other factors. Every person in the middle of
the chain is both a sender (message originator) and a receiver (message interpreter); hence, the
whole chain multiplies itself at least threefold. An event is experienced by a sender1 and mediated
to a journalist-receiver1. Receiver1-sender2 mediates the message to the editor-receiver2.
Receiver2-sender3 contextualises the message for final receiver3-audience.50 However, if the event
occurs “unattended” and there is no witness, or if there are a few links sender-receiver before the
chain reaches the journalist and editor, the whole process of mediating becomes even more prone to
misinterpretations and misreadings at the final link. As a result, some cases of misreporting in the
information chain may be intentional and deliberate manipulation of technology, codes, sings, and
discourses as these are the base on which bias and propaganda operates.
Ther
EVENT
SENDER
EDITOR
RECEIVER
ACT OF READING
efore,
another
message
message
message
pattern of
formulated
encoded
decoded
the
chain
factors (+noise) and their intensity:
can
be
technology
technology
technology
technology
drawn
to
editing
editing
editing
editing
comprise
ideology
ideology
ideology
ideology
and reflect
+ denotation
those
+ connotation
features of
omnipresent factors influencing mediation in a more accurate way. The factors are present all the
time, only their intensity and influence shifts. This graph attempts at depicting most of those
relations.
Describing such a chain is not a purely academic act. Its main value is for the reader of a
message who happens to be subdued by manipulation or propaganda. When a piece of information
(whatever media constitutes it) is presented to the audience, receivers may attempt to decipher what
the original message and event were. However what becomes of prime importance in the
comprehension and application of the chain is that it enables the receiver to reveal ideologies and
codes at work. It becomes possible to sift out not the information/message itself, but to disclose
propaganda influencing our cognition of reality. In that sense, it becomes possible for a reader, to
become (at least partly) immune to endeavours of those who try to subdue us by deceitful usage of
ideologies, codes, and myths. The value of understanding how that chain works enables freedom of
thought, which no longer is manipulated by ‘editor’s’ into the frame of ‘the only proper’ cognition
of the world.
Reading every message, even such a simple one as a press picture or a poster, is similar
Althusser’s to reading of advertisements. The main issue propagated by adverts is consumerism and
not the product itself. Exactly the same approach applies to reading images. They do not inform
about events or advertise a film, but primarily they propagate ideologies, mystify reality, and
simplify our cognition. It takes a conscious reader to sift out such information from the depths of a
message. However, it is vital for the reader to understand what is mediated to him if he wants to
remain a man of his own realm. Rules of reading advocated in this thesis, like all others, cannot be
adopted in the analysis of every picture – no theory is perfect. Nevertheless, more often than not,
the information chain developed in this chapter appears applicable in many cases.
It seems that manipulation of information, though on different levels of information chain,
occurs all the time. The most threatening issue is ‘framing’ our trait of thinking into particular
cognition of the world based on somebody else’s beliefs and desires. Culture specific
conceptualising of the reality and mythological reading of messages (which in case of images
happens semiconsciously!) may further ideological influence of the mediator on the reader. As
readers, we should find a way out of the frame into which we are being entangled.
50
The chain also applies to creation of posters as there powers influencing the final choice and shape of the placard
work in a similar way. There is a film, which requires a poster. The poster is ordered and a company usually
consisting of or employing a few artists discusses the best pictorial representation of a main thought of the film – a
thought chosen by ‘the powerful’. Finally, out of many offers one or two posters are chosen, re-touched and finally
displayed. This chain may only be more influenced by external powers than the process of mediating a press
photography. Only propaganda posters are more strictly ‘censored’ and re-constructed than film posters.
Nevertheless, the implications and the shape of the information chain remain similar if not the same.
Chapter 4 IDEOLOGY IN IMAGES – THE CRITICAL APPROACH AND THE
ANALYSIS OF EXAMPLES
Previous chapters of this thesis aimed at analysing technological and ideological factors reshaping messages. General conclusion inferred from ‘judging’ these factors presents a bizarre world
of independent readers, who despite their alleged freedom of interpretation are influenced by social
discourses, cultural myths, and subcultural codes. On the part of the message creator, these features
of cultured mediation can be used as a means of ‘furthering one’s intent’, of introducing
propaganda. It becomes obvious within the analysis of chapter 3 that propaganda works as nearly
invisible when it attempts to disguise itself within codes and myths of the reader. This chapter is
devoted to presenting a few examples of press photographs, war posters, and film placards in order
to depict propaganda at work. However, the analysis of examples is abridged for a few purposes.
Firstly, pictures should “speak for themselves”. Any reading, so also presented in the thesis, is
cultured and, therefore, to some extant manipulates cognition. Secondly, this thesis attempts to
present the general issue of propaganda in pictorial messages in our surrounding rather than
describe in only a few examples manipulation media exerts on readers. Chapters 2 and 4 give a brief
account of ideologies into which images are ‘framed’ due to mythological manipulation. These few
examples of reading images presented in this chapter are designed as a stimuli for conscious reading
of pictorial messages a source of which are chapters 2 and 4, and everyday life. The examples also
attempt at depicting recurring motifs rendering the distinction between press, posters, and
propaganda images obsolete.
Chapter 4.1 PRESS PICTURES: CHÉ GUEVARA, YOUTH, MARGARET THATCHER, AND IRA
Ché Guevara is one of the icons of the 20th century. For a brief time his face belonged to the
best known ‘images’ around the world (after faces of Muhammad Ali, Jesus Christ, and Ghandi – in
that order!). Nearly no person can walk past Ché’s picture unmoved. The ideological weight of his
portraits is tremendous. However, what ideology and what
meaning are there inherently in his portraits? Who does the
picture present? A freedom fighter or a lost cause defender? A
murderer? A communist or a supporter of anti-Americanism?51
Maybe the picture presents a Castro’s friend who betrayed Cuba
for other countries? Or perhaps the picture shows no one else but
an unshaven man? Every other description, if historical
knowledge left aside, becomes inapplicable. However, history of
the 20th century is strongly ideologically loaded and
mythologised. Any reading leading towards a more accurate
description has to be grounded in an ideology and, hence, has to
mystify reality. The aim of this paragraph is depicting that we do
read in an ideology-based manner. The same applies to creating
messages. A properly used picture of Ché will bring preferred
readings as the picture is overwhelmed with mythologies.
The picture of young people shouting and behaving in a
seemingly offensive way gives a
They look young, hippie-like,
a group of protesting anarchists
‘junkies’52.
However,
as
51
52
similar example.
and appear to be
or
even
opposing
to
Whence today half of Europe would probably call itself partially anti-American estranged by USA foreign policy,
pop, crime, or self-centred economy.
It is an exemplary reading.
what readers may imagine, those young people are students loudly, though peacefully,
demonstrating against racist National Front manifestation in London, 1974. Although the manner of
their actions will probably be judged as improper, their beliefs are those of the ‘civilised’, of the
‘masses’, and of the dominant code. As in case of Ché Guevara, historical knowledge may provide
a completely different reading from the expected after a glimpse. A ‘proper’ evaluation provided by
press articles will direct readers towards ‘proper’ decodings of those pictures. In themselves they
are capable of being both ‘positive’ and ‘negative’ in their ideological depth. Readers have to
decide themselves if they want to be directed by biased press or if they prefer to engross themselves
in a difficult act of individual decoding.
Another picture that no British53 can
indifferently walk by is that of Margaret Thatcher.
The reading of that image may be highly
unfavourable for the Iron Lady. She may seem as
much out of place in a tank with something ‘big’
covering her face, as out of place many thought her
as the party leader in the parliament. And after all,
where is her little handbag? Of course, British flag
is dragged after Ms Thatcher just as she vigorously
drawn the country towards the bitter unknown of
her own choice. As seen in the example,
ideological reading may be not only one-sided but also very overpowering.
Another sore and ideological issue in the
UK is the Trouble. Nature of questions relating to
Ché Guevara comes to the front once more. Do the
pictures present disruptive youth, juvenile
delinquency of industrial poor districts, or maybe
teenage freedom fighters objecting the oppression?
And whom are they fighting with: soldiers – is it a
war then; police – is it just another demonstration.
Are the forces Irish or British. Or maybe the whole
protest is organised by protestant citizens of Ulster
who do not wish becoming part of the Republic?
Whatever the answer, myths used by opposing
groups of readers will be strongly attached to the
decoding of that image.
Picture based debate between the opponents
may be intensified when presenting the time of
peace. However, how questionable peace as the
next picture presents the IRA taking over Dublin in
1922. Heroes bringing freedom or terrorists within
the state? Again, a proper manipulation of
information may use the picture as propaganda
either for or against the IRA.
Chapter 4.2 IDEOLOGY IN POSTERS: SYMBOLIC CLICHÉS
As mentioned in chapters 3 and 5, ideological
manipulation of images reaches its limits in production of
posters, especially war posters. Those images are clearly
propaganda and their sole aim is to maintain the dominant
53
What ever this word may mean today...
ideology as the main discourse in the society. Propaganda posters usually work with the most
obvious and most widely acclaimed myths. In case of US WW2 poster “The M-1 does MY talking”
ideological weight seems evident. The poster re-establishes myths according to Barthes’ theory. In
the USA sheriff is the traditional icon of peace and order. A sheriff has specific attributes like his
gun, a shiny badge, a hat covering his eyes, and (especially after Clint Eastwood films) an unshaven
face. His behaviour and methods may be questionable; however, his statements leave no doubt
about his effectiveness (Eastwood comes to the front again, although, it was John Wayne who
created that style in Western). The poster uses and re-establishes the myth of American law
enforcer. The soldier figure, a civilised defender of “our families” and the world, comprises all the
attributes connected with a sheriff. There is a gun, a pack of shiny ammunition as his badge
representing “the American law”, a modernised hat – a helmet, and a rigid face. The myth is applied
to present the American Dream that has to be defended and that it is defended. The duty of those
Americans who are not at the front is to provide the soldier with more law enforcing ‘equipment’.
The poster also leaves no doubt as to the only right and possible way of discussion between ‘us
Americans’ and ‘them the Axis invaders’.
In such a companion the German poster from the
same period appears to possess similar qualities. Its premiss is as
similar and as clear as of its US counterpart. The only difference is
in the myth applied by Germans. Their hero belongs to the
everyman sort of citizen becoming a knight figure with obvious
emblems of his affiliation and ranks. The myth may be different
but the adoption of ideology in both cases is exactly the same. The
belief that only Germans manipulated information is an infantile
and idealised vision of the world. The next paragraph presents how
much the stereotypes (myths) applied by war posters are also used
by cinema in film advertisements.
“He is watching you” poster belongs to a very
profound school of propaganda. It is simple in its
colours (using just two contrasting hints), in the usage
of symbolical icon of Evil (German helmet and
“those little evil eyes”), and in the choice of fonts and the linguistic message itself.
The reading ‘is’ obvious. In time, the image of German helmet lurking somewhere in
the background or as an elementary motif has become associated with negative
meaning. Anything, even slightly resembling the curvy line of German gear may be
used to further negative connotations.
The painters of Star Wars’ posters were aware of this obvious connection and
based
the
whole
series
of
advertisements on the symbolic figure
of Darth Vader. There, the Dark Lord’s helmet so
much resembling that of the Germans constitutes
the background of nearly all posters. As in the war
propaganda poster the helmeted figure is always
behind beholding and almost certainly controlling
all events. The ‘black figure’ itself is read as
negative even before watching the film and learning
about the Lord of the Dark Side. The negative
element in both posters is a driving force requiring a
particular behaviour opposing the (Nazi) threat.
This conceptualising of the German helmet as an icon of evil is used in
numerous posters for the same purpose – drawing attention. Images
become clichés, as today virtually any thing resembling the shapes is
directly read as negative. In this way, propaganda of engrossing readers
into particular understanding and manipulating them into specific actions becomes relatively
effortless. Moreover, the myth of ‘German helmet = evil’ re-establishes itself according to Barthes’
theory.
Another of the basic motifs of WW2
propaganda posters is that of a human figure,
usually equipped with a gun or a national
emblem, towering over all average people. The
background is constituted of the forces
supporting the hero(ine) or villains that shall fall
under the almighty crush of his/her hand. “Buy
War Bonds” proclaiming the inexhaustible
power of Uncle Sam is just an example of the
pattern. This reading encoded in the message
which mythology relies on the central figure has
been repeated a number of times. Posters
advertising “Escape from N.Y.” or “Star Wars”
are just a few of hundreds following the pattern. All elements of “Buy War Bonds” are recreated in
the “Escape”. This poster also applies the myths of American individuality and independence,
American strength, American-type hero, American pragmatism, and American rags-to-riches
stories. All those myths, in case of both propaganda and film poster, are re-established and applied
only for the reason of manipulating reading. Spectators have to agree with the message (,
ideological information and national myths,) if they want themselves included in the ‘big picture’ of
the most powerful nation in the world.
The message is simplified in
case of a “Star Wars” poster presenting Luke
Skywalker. However, the hero still has his lawenforcing attribute – a laser gun, the space
behind him has to be defended from evil, and
the petty enemies await the crushing might of
his power. This poster employs only basic
symbolic language of cultural myths and the
dominant ideology of the victorious. Therefore,
it becomes interesting to compere the most
basic of the film-propaganda posters with a
placard that renders the mythologised pattern
ironic. Posters to films like “Army of
Darkness” in an obvious way relate to earlier examples. They are based on the same ideology,
myths, and codes. However, here the poster does not pretend to be neutral nor does it claim as much
as propaganda-like influence on viewers. It exaggerates all myths and ideologies. The weapon is not
a usual gun but a chain saw! The enemy is nothing more but minute goblin-like figures.
Understandably, the hero will defend the city behind him; however, all his fight is driven by
pleasure of adventures and voluptuous female bodies. Nevertheless, the pattern of earlier
propaganda posters is retained due to which the poster seems knowable and ideologically
meaningful.
The examples of the analysis based on the application of information chain may be verified
against possible deconstructions of press photographs and posters presented in chapters 2 and 4.
However, the outcome of any analysis should be similar and should prove the information chain
right. Deconstructing images, while applying the information chain, reveals what changes or
enhancements have been employed. The knowledge of these manipulations may also display at
what stage of mediation or image creation they were implemented. Hence, discovering how, when,
and with what tool (myth) images attempt to manipulate readers becomes possible. The next chapter
gives further explanation on why readers are “framed” into particular cognition of the world, and
how to withstand manipulation of the propagandist.
Chapter 5 CONCLUSION
“By the word reading we mean not only the capacity to identify and decode a certain
number of signs, but also the subjective capacity to put them into a creative relation
between themselves and with other signs: a capacity which is, by itself, the condition for
a complete awareness of one’s total environment.”54
The scope of examples in chapters 2, 4, and 6, though scarce, present recurrent questions
and readings around war propaganda posters, press pictures and film placards. The analysis of
similarities advances towards an obvious conclusion. Earlier chapters tried to prove that
technological and ideological factors shaping pictorial messages and their reading are strongly
rooted in the subjective approach of the audience. However, due to the mythological cognition of
the world, readers are prone to become subdued by propaganda. Examples presented and briefly
analysed in chapter 6 uncover similarities and relations between all kinds of pictorial images. No
matter which sort of image is examined, the notion of mythologising it and turning it into
propaganda finally seems inevitable. Propaganda may be subtle and positive (as in case of health
promoting posters of WW2), but it may be more dangerous and numbing. Surprisingly, it is film
posters and press pictures that may have a supreme impact on readers. As they are not analysed as
propaganda, the myths they apply re-establish themselves “in a natural way”. However, myths are
not natural but cultural, and they evolve and change in time and space. Myths are naturalised beliefs
that pictures use as a means of conveying desired meanings. If readers do not attempt to read the
image for what it is, with all its mythology, they are going to become manipulated. They are
manipulated. The knowledge of information chain and the ways in which myths and ideologies
work releases readers from the enslavement of propaganda and the frame of cognition it advocates.
“We Are Being Framed” from the title of the thesis is a direct comment of propaganda
behaviour of media we are surrounded by. Pictorial messages, more than others, re-establish myths
and enforce cognition of the world in particular frames desired by the powerful. “Being framed” as
a reader, in such a context, has a threefold meaning:
1. We are being framed into living in a world that (we do not even realise) we do not
want to inhabit. The world is created by someone else and for someone else. This
‘else’ is the propagandist, the powerful, who enslaves us into the relationship so
bitterly described by Marx. This time, however, ideological interpretation of our
state is not that of “rightfully outwitted”, but that of “those who even do not know
they are outwitted”. As readers do not realise that they are being framed, they do not
object.
2. We are being framed into particular conceptualisation of the world. Individual
beliefs become unimportant in reading messages from afar and near as there is ‘the
only proper’ frame of cognition which we ‘have to’ employ every time. The national
ideologies and myths are repeated so often that they are considered natural.
However, myths are culture specific and messages from different discourses should
be analysed according to all available codes and not only according to the frame of
dominant system. As a result, readers adopt the frame of hegemonic discourse to
images that are not even presented to them yet. As readers do not realise that they are
being framed, they do not object.
3. We are being framed not only into false reading of images, because of overpowering
influence of dominant code, but primarily we are left to believe that this frame of
conceptualising the world according to cultural myths is our own and natural frame
of thought. Without realising that there are bonds around us, without realising that
they are enforced we will not be capable of shaking them off. As we do not realise
that we are being framed, we do not object.
54
Hall. “Encoding, Decoding”. p. 514
Hopefully, readers of articles will also start reading images accompanying the linguistic
message. After all, image is also a text and may be interpreted according to particular signs, codes,
myths, and discourses. If pictorial messages are left aside, they may only slip through our cognitive
(culture specific) filters and influence us, manipulating our understanding of the world and finally
our behaviours. On its part, Media will be framing us as it is in their business. However, the choice
is left to the reader with an opened mind what Barthes proclaimed in his essays.
Chapter 5.1 THE LAST WORD
The analysis and reasoning on which this thesis is based relates to a few scholars and Greek
philosophers. Their ideas, although rewritten a number of times, are still influential even in the
conclusion of this work. Humans are social and cultural creatures. We are capable of perceiving the
world in its complexity and beauty. As Stachura wrote, we are all poets and everything around us is
poetry. However, as Stachura continuous to muse over the poetry of life, he concludes that not
every one is grown enough to read the poetry of the world. The reasoning on which this thesis is
based relates, as Stachura’s thought, to a few scholars and philosophers, namely: to Socrates, Plato,
and their followers like Bacon, Barthes, and others.
Socrates asks why? What? Where? How do you know, how come you are so certain? Why
are you afraid? Why are you happy? This method of doubting and believing in ultimate truth is in
part the guidance of this thesis and its reasoning. After Socrates, Barthes concluded that to
communicate consciously we have to read and verify every piece of information. Nothing should be
‘taken for granted’. Only then, we can reach reality described by a message, and only then we can
reach the cultural myths and codes applied in encoding and decoding information. It is an essential
act, as only by knowing codes and culture specific myths it becomes possible to both communicate
efficiently and to free ourselves from stereotypes, superstitions, and manipulation. As Plato would
describe it, there is a better and ideal world behind our manipulated lives. An open mind may try to
reach that other world.
Therefore, a final question and a final answer appear inevitable. What should we do? What
should we, readers and senders of messages, do with this manipulation around us? At first we
should follow Kipling’s “If...”:
“(...) If you can fill the unforgiving minute
with sixty seconds worth of distance run.
Your is the Earth and everything that’s in it,
And – which is more – you’ll be a Man, my son!”
Or to state the same idea in even a more British way, it seems that David Jarrett’s choice of
conclusion becomes most relevant. So what should we do? “One of the most satisfactory
conclusions rising from asking big questions is provided by Eric Idle, in drag, at the end of Monty
Python's Meaning of Life (1983):
“Nothing very special. Try to be nice to people. Avoid eating fat. Read a good book
every now and again. Get some walking in. And try and live in peace and harmony with
people of all creeds and nations. And finally here are some completely gratuitous
pictures of penises to offend the censors.”55
55
Jarrett. p. 64
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