Clay's Blog

Social Semiotics is a way to analyze popular culture by emphasizing dimensions of meaning, like the way mass media influences meaning in our lives and in turn, society at large (Hodge, 2016). In our world of mass media, the media plays a major role in shaping society and has largely outweighed traditional cultural practices and the meaning of people’s lives they previously derived from those practices. Developed by Michael Halliday in the late 1970s, social semiotics is the study of how people interpret meanings. This idea is incredibly important considering the effect of the media on our society. The media has a profound ability to influence the thinking, priorities, wants and needs of entire generations. Through the media society can be controlled, just like society was controlled by cultural beliefs and practices for all human history. Halliday saw language as a product of social processes; Hodge and others later took it further to describe how societies develop and shape these reso

 Online arguments...raise your hand if you've ever given in and let loose on someone on the internet. The anonymity of the internet provides users an opportunity to speak their mind without fear of reprisal, and it certainly leads to some entertaining interactions. Lets take a look at an online argument happening in the comments section of a YouTube video. Jimmy Dore is a YouTuber offering political commentary from a critical-left point of view. In one of his recent videos titled "Ukraine War Driving Rampant Censorship At Home," he explains the effects of the events in Ukraine on media and our ability to exercise free speech in the US. I chose this video/argument because of it's relevance to the last week's podcast subject as I believe it offers a good example of why censorship should not be a go-to tool. In the comments sections someone noted: "Can you imagine if people would react the same way when the US carries out their numerous way more brutal wars? It