1. Signification: Codes & Conventions
Intro to Communication
Dr. P.M.G. Verstraete
WEEK 7
Signification:
Codes & Conventions

2. Processing & Signification (Semiosis)

3. Signification
Recap: signifier & signified degrees of convention (Guiraud & Barthes) entropy/redundancy (Shannon & Weaver)

4. Signification

5. Signification

6. Signification
Denotation vs.
Connotation

7. To study the relationship between signifier and signified:
Arbitrary: determined by convention, rule, agreement
the more arbitrary = the more unmotivated
Iconic: the form of the signifier is constrained by the signified
the more motivated, the more its signifier is constrained by the signified
P. Guiraud & R.Barthes

8. Shannon and Weaver’s model
A few weeks earlier…
Redundancy = that which is predictable or conventional in a message (technical/social: overcoming communication problems)
Entropy = the opposite of redundancy, a maximum unpredictability (constituting communication problems)
Convention = source of redundancy, and thus of easy decoding (structure, pattern = predictable)

9. Redundancy/Entropy On a technical level:
Shannon and Weaver’s model
On a technical level:
accuracy of any message checked against the probable;
what is probable is determined by our experience of the code, context, and type of message = by our experience of convention
On a social level:
phatic communication
= acts of communication that contain nothing new, no information, but that use existing channels simply to keep them open and usable

10. Signification
meaning making = identification of significant differences, units (cf. categorizing our reality)
+ seeing the relationship between these units = creating paradigms & syntagms

11. Signification
Cultural- specific
Our perception and understanding of reality is as specific to our culture as our language is.
It is in this sense that we talk of reality as a social construct.

12. Signification: Codes
Today’s Class - Codes and Conventions - Aberrant Decoding - Pairs of Codes: Analogue/Digital Presentational/Representational; Non-Verbal Communication Elaborated/Restricted Broadcast/Narrowcast Arbitrary / Conventional; Aesthetic codes

13. Signification: Codes
Codes and Conventions

14. signifying codes: systems of signs
Signification: Codes
Codes = systems into which signs are organized, governed by rules (= convention!) which are consented to by all members of the community using that code (= social dimension!)
codes of behavior
signifying codes: systems of signs

15. All codes rely on commonality, that is an agreement amongst their users on their basics
Forms of agreement:
convention & use, explicit agreement, clues within the text
Convention:
raises expectations
relies on redundancy (easy decoding)
creates cultural membership
relies on similarity of experience
is reassuring

16. Dressing = encoding a message

17. us as the wearer of the clothes,
Signification: Codes
We select a unit from each paradigm and combine it with others to make a statement.
This statement uses a presentational, indexical code and conveys a meaning about:
us as the wearer of the clothes,
our perception of our relationships with the people we expect to meet,
our status or role within the social situations we shall come across during the day.

18. ‘aberrant meaning’ = different meaning
Signification: Codes
‘aberrant meaning’ = different meaning
when different codes are used in the encoding and decoding of the message
For example: if the message is read by a member of a different culture who brings different codes to it
= beyond the encoder’s intention
(‘inferred intention’)

19. Different Pairs of Codes 1. Analogue vs. Digital
Signification: Codes

20. an analogue code is one that works on a continuous scale.
Analogue vs Digital Codes
A digital code is one whose units (both signifiers and signifieds) are clearly separated
an analogue code is one that works on a continuous scale.

21. Analogue vs Digital Codes

23. Analogue vs Digital Codes
The search for meaning, however, involves the identification of significant differences and thus the imposition of digital features upon an analogical reality (‘nature’).

24. 2. Presentational vs. Representational Codes

25. Presentational vs Representational
Codes
Representational codes are used to produce texts, that is messages with an independent existence.
A text stands for something apart from itself and its encoder.
A text is composed of iconic or symbolic signs.
Presentational codes are indexical: they cannot stand for something apart from themselves and their encoder.
For example: non-verbal communication

26. Non-verbal Communication (NVC)
Presentational vs Representational
Codes
Non-verbal Communication (NVC)
= carried on through presentational codes such as gestures, eye movements, or qualities of voice. These codes can give messages only about the here and now.
limited to face-to-face communication or communication when the communicator is present.

27. Presentational vs Representational
Codes
Functions:
Indexical information: about the speaker and his or her situation
Interaction management: manage the sort of relationship the encoder wants with the other

28. Presentational vs Representational
Codes
Functions of the body:
bodily contact
proximity / proxemics
orientation
appearance (level of control)
head nods (interaction management)
facial expression (mimics)
gestures (kinesics)
posture
eye movement / contact
non-verbal aspects of speech (prosodic & paralinguistic codes)

29. Presentational vs Representational
Codes

30. 3. Elaborated vs. Restricted Codes

31. Elaborated vs Restricted
Codes
Basil Bernstein:
What actually determines the code used is the type of social relations that exist.
A tight, closed, traditional community tends to use restricted codes.
A more fluid, changing, mobile, impersonal type of social relations typical of the modern middle class tends to produce elaborated codes.
Be careful with judgment!

32. Elaborated vs Restricted
Codes
NO! I don't care if you're educated! I don't care if you're using elaborate codes or restricted codes of languages! You're still grounded!

33. Elaborated vs Restricted
Codes
Restricted Codes
= simpler, less complex
= oral, closer to representational, indexical, non-verbal
= redundant, predictable, phatic
= oriented towards social relations (restricting individuality),
shared, local cultural identity
= interacting with non-verbal code (NVC)
= expressing concrete, specific, here and now
= depending cultural experience
Elaborated Codes
= complex
= written or spoken, representational, symbolic
= entropic, harder to predict, referential
= towards the individual as a person, precise/personally unique meaning
= downplaying NVC
= expressing abstractions, generalities, the absent
= depending on formal education, training (to be learned)

34. 4. Broadcast vs. Narrowcast Codes

35. Broadcast vs Narrowcast
Codes
A little difference…
Elaborated/Restricted Codes = defined by the nature of the code itself and by the type of social relationship it serves.
Broadcast/Narrowcast Codes = defined by the nature of the audience.

36. Broadcast vs Narrowcast
Codes
Broadcast Codes
= shared by members of a mass audience
(a degree of heterogeneity)
Like restricted codes: immediate appeal, not much education needed, community-oriented
The broadcast codes are the means by which a culture communicates with itself.
Stuart Hall (1973):
“The television audience is both source and receiver of the message.”

37. Broadcast vs Narrowcast
Codes
“The television audience is both source and receiver of the message.”
In content: If a broadcast is to receive the mass reception it needs, it must deal with matters of general concern.
In form: The audience has certain expectations, based on a cultural experience shared with the broadcasters.
Broadcasting is an institutional activity: the priorities within each institution are the product of their staff and their society, and all of these add up to influence the type of broadcasting

38. Broadcast vs Narrowcast
Codes
Like the bard (Hall: ‘bardic’ television)
by broadcast codes in a mass society
and by restricted codes in a subculture or a local community
Audience members negotiate their response with reference to their own particular circumstances, and by so doing situate themselves in their culture.

39. Broadcast vs Narrowcast
Codes
Narrowcast Codes
= aimed at a specific, defined, limited audience, often defined by the codes that it uses
(one has to learn the codes involved)
= individualist, person-orientated, not communal, status-orientated; elitist, socially divisive (specialist jargon, highbrow art); stressing a difference between ‘us’ and ‘them’, between communicator and audience
Note: different from restricted codes!
they do not rely on a shared communal experience, but on a common educational or intellectual experience

40. 5. Arbitrary (or Logical) vs. Conventional Codes

41. Arbitrary vs Conventional
Codes
Arbitrary Code
= simply defined, and easily understood; where the agreement among the users is explicit and defined; with a stated and agreed relationship between signifiers and signifieds
= symbolic, denotative, impersonal, and static

42. Arbitrary vs Conventional
Codes
Arbitrary codes have a defined, limited paradigm of signifiers with a precisely related paradigm of signifieds. They emphasize denotative meaning.
Arbitrary codes are static and can only change by explicit agreement amongst the users.
= closed: meaning within the text, not much negotiation, you need to know the code
Example: mathematics, 4x7=28
Conventional codes have open-ended paradigms: new units can be added; existing ones can drop out of use.
Conventional codes tend not to have an agreed paradigm of signifieds. They are thus more dynamic and capable of change.
= open: active negotiation from the reader
Example: Folk art, car design, low-brow art, cliché

43. Aesthetic Codes (= conventional)
Arbitrary vs Conventional
Codes
Aesthetic Codes (= conventional)
= more varied, loosely defined, change rapidly
aberrant decodings are the norm
They are expressive; they encompass the interior, subjective world.
They can be a source of pleasure and meaning in themselves: style is a relevant concept

44. Arbitrary vs Conventional
Codes
A. Warhol
unique in a culture of mass production

45. Arbitrary vs Conventional
Codes
Unique?

46. Arbitrary vs Conventional
Codes
Unique?

47. Arbitrary vs Conventional
Codes
S. Dali
clues or hints towards its own decoding

48. Arbitrary vs Conventional
Codes
Conventionalisation

49. Arbitrary vs Conventional
Codes
Kitsch?
R. Magritte

50. Arbitrary vs Conventional
Codes
R. Magritte

51. Arbitrary vs Conventional
Codes
Degradation? Cliché?

52. Arbitrary vs Conventional
Codes
Non-verbal, visual language of advertisement…

53. Signification: Codes
Codes and Conventions
constitute the shared centre of any culture’s experience. They enable us to understand our social existence and to locate ourselves within our culture. Only through the common codes can we feel and express our membership of our culture.