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Luckycharm54

Joined 19 April 2010

Semiotics of Social Networking

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Social networking gives humans an instant connection to communicate with others. One important way to explore this form of communication is through semiotics. Semiotics[1] is looking for signs’ meaning[2]. Semiotic structuralism theories look for the signs’ meaning is done without incorporating social interaction involved[3]. However, post-structuralism theories take tools from (structuralism) semiotics and apply social interaction[4]. This is called social semiotics[5]. Social semiotics is defined as “a branch of the field of semiotics which investigates human signifying practices in specific social and cultural circumstances, and which tries to explain meaning-making as a social practice” [6]. “Social semiotics also examines semiotic practices, specific to a culture and community, for the making of various kinds of texts and meanings in various situational contexts and contexts of culturally meaningful activity”[7].

Social Networking

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Chart 1
 
Chart 2

Social networking is having one alone person communicate with another alone person in a virtual social space using a computer[8]. Social networking gives humans instant connection to communicate with others. This new area of communication allows new insight into social semiotics. Social semiotics is studying human interactions through situations[9]. “Millions of people now interact through blogs, collaborate through wikis, play multiplayer games, publish podcasts and video, build relationships through social network sites, and evaluate all the above forms of communication through feedback and ranking mechanisms”[10]. Social semiotics “unlike speech, writing necessitates some sort of technology in the form of person device interaction”[11]. Social semiotics show the triad of communication, in the form of sign, object, interpretant (Chart 1)[12], (Piercean Semiotics) “Human, Machine, Tag (Information)(Chart 2)”[13].


Human-Social Interacting[14].

Machine–Computers are created by humans and now have social applications[15].

Tag– Picture/information tagging on social networks “has changed the traditional online communication process”[16].


This example of the triangle of Human, Machine, Tag is best shown when looking at tagging photographs on Facebook[17]. The Human takes the picture on a camera and puts the camera’s picture (information) on the Machine, the Machine is then navigated to Facebook where the picture is downloaded. The Human has the Machine Tag the picture with information (names, places, data) for other Humans to see. This process then can be continued (see chart 2). “Collaborative tagging has been quickly gaining ground because of its ability to recruit the activity of web users into effectively organizing and sharing vast amounts of information”[18].

References

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  1. ^ Semiotics. March 6, 2010. Internet on-line. Available from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Semiotics.
  2. ^ Chandler, D. 2007. The Basics: Semiotics 2nd ed.. New York, NY: Routeledge.
  3. ^ Structuralism. April 25th, 2010. Internet on-line. Available from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Structuralism.
  4. ^ Post-structuralism. April 25th, 2010. Internet on-line. Available from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poststructuralism.
  5. ^ Chandler, D. 2007. The Basics: Semiotics 2nd ed.. New York, NY: Routeledge.
  6. ^ Social Semiotics. March 6, 2010. Internet on-line. Available from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_semiotics.
  7. ^ Lemke, J. L. Important Theories for Research Topics. 2002. Internet on-line. Available from http://academic.brooklyn.cuny.edu/education/jlemke/theories.htm.
  8. ^ Artsnooze. Social Networking (Semiotics, Phenomenology, Epistemology, Ontology, Culture studies) . 2009. Internet on-line. Available from http://www.scribd.com/doc/18011361/Social-Networking-Semiotics-Phenomenology-Epistemology-Ontology-Culture-Studies.
  9. ^ Hodge, R., and G. Kress. 1988. Social Semiotics. Polity: Cambridge.
  10. ^ Warschauer, Mark, Douglas Grimes. 2007. Audience, Authorship, and Artifact: The Emergent Semiotics of Web 2.0. Cambridge Journal 27, no. Annual Review of Applied Linguistic: 1-1-23.
  11. ^ Noy, Chaim. 2008. Mediation materialized: The Semiotics of a Visitor Book at an Israeli Commemoration Site. Critical Studies in Media Communication 25, no. 2: 175(21).
  12. ^ Mules, Warwick. 1997. The Social Semiotics of Mass Communication. Journal of Communication 47 p166(4).
  13. ^ Social Tagging, Online Communication, and Peircean Semiotics. 2008. Internet on-line. Available from http://www.slideshare.net/andreasinica/social-tagging-online-communication-and-peircean-semiotics-presentation.
  14. ^ Thibault, P. J. 1991. Social Semiotics as Praxis: Text, Social Meaning Making, and Nabokov's Ada. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
  15. ^ Hodge, R., and G. Kress. 1988. Social Semiotics. Polity: Cambridge.
  16. ^ Huang, Andrea W., Tyng-Ruey Chuang. 2009. Social Tagging, Online Communication, and Peircean Semiotics: A Conceptual Framework.(report). Journal of Information Science 35, no. 3: 340(18).
  17. ^ White, L. 2010. Facebook, Friends and Photos: A Snapshot into Social Networking for Generating Travel Ideas (Chapter 7). In Tourism Informatics: Visual Travel Recommender Systems, Social Communities, and User Interface Design. Edited by N. Sharda. Hershey, PA: IGI Global.
  18. ^ Cattuto, Ciro, Vittorio Loreto, and Luciano Pietronero. 2007. Semiotic Dynamics and Collaborative Tagging. (APPLIED PHYSICAL SCIENCES)(author abstract)(report). Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States 104, no. 5: 1461(4).
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