Semiotics Proposals

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My Semiotic Proposal

Construction of South Canara in the Cyberspace: A Semiotic Analysis

A land gets constructed in numerous ways in the public domain. It can be a drawing on a map, a geographical location described with reference to other landmasses or water bodies or in terms of cultural practices. This however gets represented in different media with each medium constructing it within its possibilities. These media could be folk narratives, gossips, TV, cinema, theatre, newspapers, literature, Radio or internet. The construction of land in each of these medium is contingent on the limitation of each of these medium and the ownership of the medium at the level of the sender.

South Canara has been constructed differently in terms of history, mythology, cultural artefacts, landscape, demography, and social relationships in different media down the centuries. One of the relatively new medium in which it is being constructed is the internet though websites. The place is described in websites of the State, NGOs, educational institutions, tourism firms, print and online media, and web pages of individuals.

This paper tries to analyze the way the internet, where possibilities of many other media converge, constructs the place. It will analyse the myths, metaphors, social meanings, discourses, mediations, stereotypes, ideologies, power, hegemony, representations that are present or surface in the different visual, textual, colour, sound symbols, and codes that the portals employ in the construction of the place.

Select Bibliography

Barthes, Roland. Mythologies. Trs. Annette Lavers. London: Vintage, 1993.

Thwaites, Tony et al. Introducing Cultural and Media Studies. London: Palgrave, 2002.

Watson, James. Media Communication: An Introduction to Theory and Process. 2 ed. London: Palgrave, 2003.

<http://www.daaiz.com/>

<http://www.daijiworld.com/home.asp>

<http://www.soans.com/index.htm>