Encyclopedia of Multimedia

2008 Edition
| Editors: Borko Furht

Multimedia Semiotics

Reference work entry
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-387-78414-4_149
How to cite

Definition

Multimedia signals are artifacts intended to convey messages and, as such, they are a legitimate object of semiotic analysis.

Introduction

Some care must be taken in semiotic analysis because, if it is legitimate to consider multimedia as a form of text, the peculiar characteristics of this text, and the intertwined reading modalities that it presents, impose the use of specific analysis instruments.

The first issue that presents itself is about the very nature of the multimedia sign: to put it in Piercean terms: is the multimedia sign an icon, an index, or a symbol? (See semiotics for a definition of these and other technical terms.) The complexity of the multimedia sign is revealed by the fact that it participates in all these natures: it is at one time an icon, an index, and a symbol.

The iconic status of the multimedia sign that, at a superficial analysis would appear the most obvious, is in reality quite complex and problematic. It won't do, in fact, to say that a...

This is a preview of subscription content, log in to check access.

References

  1. 1.
    U. Eco, “A Theory of Semiotics,” Induana University Press, Bloomington, 1985.Google Scholar
  2. 2.
    G. Sonesson, “La iconicidad en un marco ecol'ogico,” in De Signis, July 2003, pp. 45–60.Google Scholar
  3. 3.
    R. Barthes, Mythologies, Seuil, Paris 1970.Google Scholar
  4. 4.
    L. Althausser, “Ideology and Ideological State Apparatuses (Notes Towards An Investigation),” Lenin and philosophy and other essays, New Left Books, London, 1971.Google Scholar
  5. 5.
    D. Arijon, Grammar of the Film Language, Silman-James Press, Los Angeles, 1976.Google Scholar
  6. 6.
    B.T. Truong, C. Dorai, and S. Venkatesh, “New Enhancements to Cut, Fade, and Dissolve Detection Processes in Video Segmentation,” Proceedings of the ACM Multimedia, 2000.Google Scholar
  7. 7.
    R. Lienhart, “Reliable Transition Detection in Videos: a Survey and Practitioner's Guide,” International Journal of Image and Graphics, Vol. 3, 2001, pp. 469–86.Google Scholar
  8. 8.
    L. Manovich, “The Language of New Media,” MIT Press, Cambridge, 2001.Google Scholar
  9. 9.
    F. Jameson, Postmodernism, or: the Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism, Duke University Press, Durham, 1991.Google Scholar
  10. 10.
    J. Goguen, “An introduction to algebraic semiotics, with application to user interface design,” in C. Nehaniv (Ed.) Computation for metaphors, analogy, and agents, University of Aizu, Aizu-Wakamatsu, Japan.Google Scholar
  11. 11.
    S. Santini, “Exploratory Image Databases,” Academic Press, New York, 2001.Google Scholar

Copyright information

© Springer-Verlag 2008

Authors and Affiliations

  1. 1.University of CaliforniaSan DiegoUSA