The Semantics of Media

Abstract

Stories, paintings, photographs, films, plays, T.V. and radio shows, maps, pretending games, hallucinations, dreams. For all their diversity, the objects which belong to these categories share a certain semantic character - they are things which we typically describe in terms of their content. One way of describing then is by means of English sentences like the following: 1. In the Story, a man invents a machine which enables him to travel backward and forward in time. In the photograph, Ronald Reagan smiles goofily. Norway is next to New Zealand on that map. In 'The Purple Rose of Cairo', a character steps out of a movie into reality. Black Sowetans rioted on last night's news programme. Marty built a house on Picadilly in the Monopoly game.