Chapter IV

EVALUATING MESSAGES AND/OR IMAGES

As you might generalize, language is all around us from the way we speak
and communicate with one another, to the books that we read, even when
we use our body to give away signals of pleasure, pain and excitement. And
as our world transitions to the online age, when communication is no longer
personal, linguists still continue to study the emerging language mediums.
The field of linguistics is particularly interested with the use of language in
everyday landscape in different contexts. Since the Internet is highly used
and online content suggests defining contexts to the netizen, linguists
consider pictures, signs, and photos as having ideologies that talk to people
exposed in these kinds of multilingual landscape. As part of the online age,
you have to be good in examining how signs communicate with you in the
context of the author and the reader/recipient in the emerging linguistics
landscapes.

A. LINGUISTIC LANDSCAPES

When you find yourself lost in an unfamiliar place, you would first look
around for signs that may tell you where you actually are. You would look for
street names, billboards, signage, or even bills posted on walls and posts.
Those signs will help you familiarize yourself in the surrounding and may
signal you about a familiar thing that may make you identify your location.
The things that you can actually see that do not necessarily need words to
express a thought is called linguistic landscape.

Wherever you are, there linguistic and semiotic materials are. These may
come in the form of billboards, signage, street names, traffic regulations, or
graffiti. These materials go unnoticed most of the time. Advertisements,
flyers and written notices are part of our everyday life. Memes, troll posts,
and tweets are prevalent online. All of these are part of the linguistic
landscapes.
Linguists consider signs to express symbolic meaning and messages. It is
both a language and medium of communication on its own. Researchers tend
to analyze the purpose of the author/writer, how these signs and symbols are
produced, and to whom they are directed to. In some cases, signs can
usually be identified on the basis of form of the signage or symbol. Official
signs are produced with a top down discourse, while signs produced by an
individual or a group, but not officially recognized has bottom up discourse.

Knowing where to draw the line between top down and bottom up is not
always easy. Ben-Rafael, et al. (2006; in Mooney & Evans, 2015) suggest that
the signs on individual shops are bottom up as these allow for personal
choice in their composition and display. However, within the context of the
shop itself, they could be regarded as top down. Leeman & Modan (2009; in
Mooney & Evans, 2015) argue that the distinction between top down and
bottom up signage practices is untenable in an era in which public-private
partnerships are the main vehicle of urban revitalization initiatives in urban
centers In many parts of the world, and when government policies constrain
private sector signage practices. Nevertheless, Mooney & Evans (2015) said,
if the distinction is thought of as a continuum whose orientation points may
shift in different contexts, it is helpful in understanding how signs are
constructed and consumed.

B. GEOSEMIOTICS

Looking at a particular sign, you may notice that the various elements used
in it have meaning, and elements symbolic in the message they want to
convey. Try to pay attention to the various features including color, size,
shape, and where the sign is placed. They may be used in analyzing the
symbolic and contextual meaning of signs. This is what linguists call as
geosemiotics. It is a mode of analyzing signs.

Geosemiotics the study of the social meaning of the material placement of

signs in the world. By signs we mean to include any semiotic system
including language and discourse (Scollon & Scollon, 2003; in Mooney &
Evans, 2015).

If you look at a sign more critically, you would likely understand the intention
of the maker and his purpose. This is why signs are placed in a location that
has relevance to the message it wants to convey. Imagine a one-way sign in
a two-way street. Most drivers would surely get confused because it does not
relate to the place where it is supposed to be.

Note that language and placement of signs are just two of semiotic systems.
Other things, like typeface used, the color, images and so on, also create and
communicate meaning, Because signs are so varied across the linguistic
landscape, you need to pay attention to all these semiotic choices of the
maker.

Having mentioned the images, the use of symbols and other features also
support the message of the sign. Imagine what would happen if the skull and
bone sign on a poisonous bottle is colored pink

Also, in evaluating signs, better ways of presenting the message must be

explored. Consider this example:

2018 National Women’s Month Celebration

WE MAKECHANGE & WORK FOR Women

1-31 MARCH 2018

#WomenMakeChange

At first glance, the sign may be read as two sentences: We make change and
Work for women. A better way of presenting the message is by lay-outing the
phrases this way, We make change work | for women.

C. KINDS OF SIGNS
Although it is often assumed that signs only differ in features, signs are
divided into different kinds based on the contextual meaning and discourse,
thus, a sign may be:

1. Regulatory, if it indicates authority and is official or legal prohibitions,

2. Infrastructural, if it labels things or directs for the maintenance of a
building or any infrastructure,

3. Commercial, which advertises or promotes a product, an event, or a

service in commerce, or

4. Transgressive, if it violates (intentionally or accidentally) the

conventional semiotics or is in wrong place, like a graffiti (In English,
graffiti is used both as a singular and plural noun. In Italian, though,
the singular form is graffito.)

Being all too common, it is easy to imagine the first three kinds of signs,
hence, the emphasis on the fourth one in this chapter.

Now, examine the sign that follows. Identify the linguistic contents (words,
phrases) in the graffiti and what each means. Also, identify the symbols used
and what each tries to convey.

This is an example of a graffiti, a transgressive sign. We have defined a

transgressive sign as one which intentionally or accidentally violates the
conventional semiotics at that place such as a discarded snack food wrapper
or graffiti, or any sign in wrong space (Scollon & Scollon, 2003; in Mooney &
Evans, 2015)

As already mentioned/graffiti are transgressive signs. A graffiti may have

varied meanings. The idea of the people is to have a medium of public voice
is shown in the production of graffiti. Grafitti is an unsanctioned urban text
(Carrington, 2009;) a language should prompt you to see the semiotic
options in the context of social spaces in this environment. Three of the
many media in this landscape are the following:
 1. YouTube.

Although YouTube (Be mindful as to how the word is spelled because it is a

proper noun.) videos cannot specifically be considered as
https://winbuzzer.com signs or symbols, YouTube video producers use
symbols and signs, generally inclusive in the language used, to convey the
message they want to express. It is difficult to generalize the use of YouTube
whether for research, entertainment, or extensive advertisement. As such,
the YouTube videos are language landscapes that can be analyzed in its
context and features.

While there is certainly some similarities between television and YouTube, it

is has also been described as being post-television (Lister, et al.; in Tolson,
2010; cited by Mooney & Evans, 2015). Some media researchers believe that
television differ from YouTube. Television tends to be filmed and recorded
from a studio and is centered, while YouTube videos may be recorded by
people who have recording gadgets at home which can be decentered.

Also, television tends to be to have a hierarchy of discourse, with some

channels and programs being more prestigious than others. This may depend
on the institutional voice of the channel or program or the kind of people
producing the content YouTube, however, is not hierarchical. While content is
searchable and ordered so that viewers can find material, none of it is
presented by the platform as more prestigious than anything else. In addition
to this, rather than having an institutional voice, the voices on YouTube are
individual voices, with ordinary people becoming celebrities and experts.
Finally, what a viewer can watch is dictated by the television program
schedule; while YouTube provides very little direction what to watch when.
Just as producers can choose what to broadcast, viewers can choose what to
watch and when to watch it (Tolson, 2010; in Mooney & Evans, 2015).

2. Twitter.

This virtual landscape is described by Mooney & Evans (2015) as ubiquitous.

What this virtual landscape looks like depends on the technology and on the
choices the user makes. An individual’s experience of Twitter, for example,
depends on who he/she is following, which hashtags he/she is interested in,
and so on. Moreover, the way people use Twitter can vary widely. It may be
used for keeping up with developments in work and career, making sure the
train is running on time, following favorite celebrities, or interacting with
friends.

Twitter (and other online platforms), provides opportunities (though always

with limitations) and resources for making choices in how we create a
personalized linguistic and semiotic landscape. Gillen & Merchant (2013; in
Mooney & Evans, 2015) refer to these choices in terms of constructing a
point of view. Further, because of the user-generated content on Twitter,
users are changing the very landscape they inhabit, even given the small
amount of space allowed for each tweet (140 characters).

Therefore, in dealing with and thinking about the linguistic landscape, we are
no longer just thinking about signs, posters, billboards, and notices (Mooney
& Evans, 2015).

3. Memes.

One of the things that the World Wide Web makes possible is the quick
circulation of memes. Memes are prevalent in social media, and if we ask a
student no matter how young if he/she has encountered one or two, it is
most probably that he/she has already.

To make the definition short, meme is a term given to any posts, language or
photo that has an uptake to a social, moral, or political idea that most of the
time seems funny.

Memes are contagious patterns of cultural information that get passed from
mind to mind and directly generate and shape the mindsets and significant
forms of behavior and actions of a social group. Memes include such things
as popular tunes, catchphrases, clothing fashions, architectural styles, ways
of doing things, icons, jingles and the like, said Knobel & Lankshear (2007; in
Mooney & Evans, 2015).

Memes are a striking example of extensive, bottom up activity that changes

the linguistic landscape (Mooney & Evans, 2015).

Memes do not only become viral, it also embeds a lasting impression to

people who can relate to the meme. Since memes are naturally comic in
nature, replicability of memes is one of its best elements.
People who create memes tend to carefully consider the photo that will be
used, the relevance of the message it wants to convey and the relationship
of the photo, the symbols used, the message, and the font style and sized
used.

MOMS BE LIKE BACK TO SCHOOL MOM

The problem with this landscape is this: Too many memes are cringe- worthy
for their blundered grammar and erroneous spelling and/or punctuation.
Some are even culturally insensitive, gender/class insensitive, and/or
politically incorrect. Yet, people like and share them. Remember: Memes like
that should never be patronized, especially by the educated and critical.