After reading Chapter 1 of our textbook, Practices of Looking, I was especially
interested in the section titled, “How We Negotiate the Meaning of Images.” It
discussed how a person ‘interprets images and creates a certain meaning with
them’ sometimes even without noticing that he or she is doing so. Though the text
only discussed this idea of interpreting an image in many different ways based
on the background information and context, I thought this idea could also be applied
to videos: specifically a clip from the recent Golden Globe Awards.
George Clooney Honored at Golden Globes
[Skip to 1:55 seconds]
At this year’s Golden Globes, George Clooney was honored
with a Lifetime Achievement Award. As two actors opened for Clooney’s award,
the camera shows Amal Clooney, George’s wife, apparently chatting during his
tribute. Though I am a huge fan of Amal and personally did not see any big
deal, she was subject to much criticism. This criticism was due to how people
interpret the video of her looking the other way and chatting, while George is
sincerely watching as he was honored. Some viewed her action as rude and disrespectful,
while others thought she was just saying a few words about George to someone
sitting near them. Either way, “media semiotics focus exactly on the message
understood as sign transmitted through different media, their meanings and how
they are decoded by the public” (Serban). Though we will never truly know what
Amal was signifying as the camera flashed on her during her husbands tribute,
it is very interesting to see how such a simple image can be interpreted in so
many ways, both negative and positive.
Serban, Silviu. 2012. "The Conative Function of Language and Media Semiotics." Contemporary Readings in Law and Social Justice 4 (2): 838-847. http://ezproxy.rollins.edu:2048/login?url=http://search.proquest.com/
docview/1400159666?accountid=13584.
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