NVC Week 4.2 Communications PDF

CM4203 Communications Semiotics: the science of communication signs Non-Verbal Communication Professional NVC  Giving your full attention. When speaking with a person, point your toes and square your shoulders toward them.  Also, avoid multi-tasking during the...

CM4203 Communications Semiotics: the science of communication signs Non-Verbal Communication Professional NVC  Giving your full attention. When speaking with a person, point your toes and square your shoulders toward them.  Also, avoid multi-tasking during the interaction. Don’t check e-mail, look at your phone, send a text, check the scores, or disengage in any way. It shows disinterest and disrespect. Professional NVC  Good eye contact. In Western cultures, eye contact is your primary tool for establishing nonverbal connections with others.  “It communicates your level of involvement, interest and warmth. When speaking to others, ideally look directly into their eyes at least two to three seconds before looking away or moving to the next person. Merely glancing at someone for one second or less is known as eye dart and conveys insecurity, anxiety or evasion.” (Forbes 2020) Unlocking the three channels in presentations:  Vocal/ verbal – content, structure, voice, pace, pitch, tone and emphasis  Non-verbal– body language, eye-contact, posture, use of space etc.  Audio-visual – select props / images / clips carefully Review: Non-Verbal Communication Facial Vocal Gestures Posture Expressions Qualities Review: Types of Non-Verbal Communications  Body movement/kinesics  Paralanguage  Facial expressions  Eye messages  Clothing  Body adornment  Space and distance Facial Expressions Basic Emotions  Happiness/Joy  Sadness  Fear  Anger  Disgust  Surprise Clothing Four Categories  Uniforms  Occupational Dress  Leisure Clothing  Costumes Space & Distance – Proxemics Hall’s four zones (1959, 1966) Proxemics – how people use space to communicate  Differs between cultures  Territoriality – laying claim to particular areas Diagram of Edward T. Hall's personal reaction bubbles (1966), showing radius in feet Body Adornment Clear Messages Use effectively Unlock the Use non- designed three verbal verbal visual aids channels behaviours Communications - definition  The science and practice of transmitting information  Communication studies is about how human meanings are made  The Communications Process Context Media Media Sende Sende Encodin Encodin Messag Decoding Decoding Receiver gg Messag Receiver rr ee Noise Noise Context Context Feedbac Feedbac Respons kk Respons ee Context Communication  Involves encoding and decoding Central to this is our understanding of signs Semiotics  Semiotics– takes culture and communication as objects of study  Shared cultural resources  Semioticsa methodology that is tailor made for understanding packaging, advertising, consumer behaviour, retail environments etc. Signs: how human meaning is made  Signs – visual or verbal  Signs are comprised by: Signifiers – the word or picture Signified – what the sign means Don Slater  “Semiotics looks at all elements of culture as if they were elements of a language  Elements of a culture – including consumer goods and events – are treated metaphorically as texts that can be read.  Systems of meaning – fashion systems, food systems, visual merchandising etc.  As a social account of consumption, the biggest gain is in recognizing that things do not have inherent meanings: meaning and things are socially organized” (pp. 137-38) What does the sign symbolize? What are the cultural connotations? Roland Barthes  The Romance Myth  According to Barthes, the red rose is not just an aesthetic or olfactory delight, but a cultural symbol of love and romance. Likewise, a wedding ring is a powerful traditional symbol of romantic love and commitment.  Being able to read material culture in terms of its popular meanings is an indispensable – if someone problematic – social skill that is integral to our commonsense, everyday interpretations. We invest signs with meaning:  But there is also a dominant cultural meaning  Meaning is not inherent or fixed  It is constructed and produced  Meaning depends on context  Part of a code A code is ‘a system of conventions that enables one to detect meaning in signs’ (Berger 1984) The language of traffic lights Signs – part of a system – defined in relation to other members of that system. Son – mother, father, family etc. But, also, in terms of what a sign is not… Concepts / signs  Culture – shared conceptual maps, shared language systems and codes  Bothwords and pictures carry meaning and have to be interpreted. Codes  Codes ‘perform an identifiable social or communicative function’  Broadcast code – uses terms / concepts that are familiar to many  Narrowcast code – ‘aimed at a defined, limited audience’ (Fisk)  Codes Codes aremeaning Since the whereofsemiotics andon a sign depends social structure the code anditvalues within which is situated, codes provide a framework within which signs make sense. (Jakobson; 1960) connect. Since the meaning of a sign depends on the code within which it is situated, codes provide a framework within which signs make 1960) Codes  Codes ‘perform an identifiable social or communicative function’  Broadcast code – uses terms / concepts that are familiar to many  Narrowcast code – ‘aimed at a defined, limited audience’ (Fisk)  Denotation – literal, obvious and common sense meaning of a sign  Connotation - The term 'connotation' is used to refer to the socio-cultural and 'personal' associations (ideological, emotional etc.) of the sign. Charles Peirce A signifier can be  Iconic (likeness to an object – a photo)  Indexical (cause and effect – smoke to indicate fire)  Symbolic (abstract representation like a logo etc. – connection is culturally learned) The Wi-Fi symbol wouldn’t mean anything to us without cultural context. Although this advertisement is mainly symbolic, there is also an iconic element to it, with the photograph of fries. C.S. Peirce  The idea of ‘unlimited semiosis’ – implies that it is impossible to determine the final and absolute meaning of signs. Anchorage  Images are prone to multiple meanings and interpretations. Anchorage occurs when text is used to focus on one of these meanings, or at least to direct the viewer through the maze of meanings in some way.  The intelligibility of sign systems is dependent on their conventionality  Visual rhetoric / conventions  These go right back and they make the normative meaning seem obvious, natural, inherent, part of the ‘myth’.  How do these ‘myths’ develop? Roland Barthe’s analysis of how elements of a code of ‘Italianicity’ are deployed in this advert Visual Rhetoric  The materials you need to get on with semiotic analysis are the products of popular culture – newspapers / blogs / TV / websites etc.  Semiotic analysis a formal activity with a set of tools We invest signs with meaning  Rachel Lawes article  Gold wrapping on biscuits to signify luxury  Drawing on shared cultural resources  But gold is no longer a reliable sign for luxury- it is gradually becoming lapsed (now gold wrapping can be considered excessive and tacky) and out-dated.  Look for emergent signs in your communication (by studying trends and culture)  Biscuits with more low-key design to signify superiour taste Summary  Semiotics– an indispensible theory / tool to help us understand communication, consumption and visual rhetoric