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Chapter 2
Signs and meaning
This chapter deals with the relationship between signs and meanings.
Meanings are not just 'out there' waiting to be identified or discovered,
but are 'read into' signs. This process of reading signs and making
meanings is not arbitrary, but is what we call an ideological process.In the previous chapter we suggested that meaning was context-
dependent, and that factors such as cultural literacy determined the kinds
of meanings available to different individuals and groups within a
culture. We pointed out that thinking about and analysing communi-
cation using notions such as context and cultural literacy means there
are many things we can't take for granted. For example:
• meanings don't pass unproblematically from the brain of a sender to
that of a receiver;
• contexts are never identical for, or completely shared by, participants;
and
• communication cannot be completely controlled by the intention of
the sender.

This does not mean, of course, that people don't claim to know what
things truly mean. On the contrary, people frequently claim that every-
one agrees, say, about what a word means, and behave as if that meaning
is natural or beyond question. Consider the word 'violence'. Bill Clinton
and other American politicians argue that the representation of violence
on television 'does a violence' to children. This issue is taken up in an
episode of The Simpsons, where Marge Simpson, horrified by what her
kids are watching on the cartoon 'Itchy and Scratchy', mobilises com-
munity opinion to force the network to censor the violence. Instead of
Itchy and Scratchy blowing each other up, they sit in rocking chairs on
the verandah drinking lemonade and being 'nice' to each other. As far

-18-

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Publication Information: Book Title: Communication and Cultural Literacy: An Introduction. Contributors: Tony Schirato - author, Susan Yell - author. Publisher: Allen & Unwin. Place of Publication: St. Leonards, N.S.W.. Publication Year: 2000. Page Number: 18.
    
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