Semiotics with a Conscience

Zusatztext Semiotics with a Conscience provides a guide to help readers cut a path through the many lies, forms of propaganda, and baseless conspiracy theories likely to be encountered online, on cable news programs, and in conversations with friends and family. Using the tools of semiotics, Danesi skillfully dissects a range of ideologies that many of us are all too familiar with, in the process, draining them of power and promising greater civility and more ethical modes of discourse. Informationen zum Autor Marcel Danesi is Professor Emeritus of Semiotics and Linguistic Anthropology at the University of Toronto, Canada. Klappentext Demonstrating how semiotic theory and method can be applied to decoding false representations and dangerous discourses, this book explores how semiotics can be used as a potentially powerful science of conscience. Confronting the sometimes negative perception of semiotics as academically inward-looking and lacking in morality, Marcel Danesi turns this view on its head. Instead, Danesi highlights how the same techniques that have allowed the use of semiotics for self-serving commercial purposes, such as advertising or marketing, could also be applied to deciphering current world problems. Through describing the semiotic notions and methods that can be used to analyze misrepresentations, propaganda, or meaning collapses, the book enables readers to become conscientiously aware of their hidden meanings and the harmful effects that they have on society. Identifying key issues of concern, such as climate change and anti-science discourses, it shows how they can be interpreted in terms of basic semiotic theory. This analysis of crucial issues demonstrates how semiotics can be used to raise awareness of critically important matters in modern society, and to encourage the development of more robust and ethical attitudes towards them. Vorwort An exploration of semiotic theory and method that demonstrates the possible use of semiotics as a potentially powerful science of conscience. Zusammenfassung Demonstrating how semiotic theory and method can be applied to decoding false representations and dangerous discourses, this book explores how semiotics can be used as a potentially powerful science of conscience. Confronting the sometimes negative perception of semiotics as academically inward-looking and lacking in morality, Marcel Danesi turns this view on its head. Instead, Danesi highlights how the same techniques that have allowed the use of semiotics for self-serving commercial purposes, such as advertising or marketing, could also be applied to deciphering current world problems. Through describing the semiotic notions and methods that can be used to analyze misrepresentations, propaganda, or meaning collapses, the book enables readers to become conscientiously aware of their hidden meanings and the harmful effects that they have on society. Identifying key issues of concern, such as climate change and anti-science discourses, it shows how they can be interpreted in terms of basic semiotic theory. This analysis of crucial issues demonstrates how semiotics can be used to raise awareness of critically important matters in modern society, and to encourage the development of more robust and ethical attitudes towards them. Inhaltsverzeichnis Preface1. Semiotics, Ethics, and Dangerous Discourses2. Words, Symbols, and Images of Conflict3. Denial Discourses4. Decoding Big Lies5. False Narratives6. Semiotics with a ConscienceReferencesIndex...

Semiotics with a Conscience provides a guide to help readers cut a path through the many lies, forms of propaganda, and baseless conspiracy theories likely to be encountered online, on cable news programs, and in conversations with friends and family. Using the tools of semiotics, Danesi skillfully dissects a range of ideologies that many of us are all too familiar with, in the process, draining them of power and promising greater civility and more ethical modes of discourse.

Préface
An exploration of semiotic theory and method that demonstrates the possible use of semiotics as a potentially powerful science of conscience.

Auteur
Marcel Danesi is Professor Emeritus of Semiotics and Linguistic Anthropology at the University of Toronto, Canada.

Texte du rabat

Demonstrating how semiotic theory and method can be applied to decoding false representations and dangerous discourses, this book explores how semiotics can be used as a potentially powerful science of conscience. Confronting the sometimes negative perception of semiotics as academically inward-looking and lacking in morality, Marcel Danesi turns this view on its head. Instead, Danesi highlights how the same techniques that have allowed the use of semiotics for self-serving commercial purposes, such as advertising or marketing, could also be applied to deciphering current world problems. Through describing the semiotic notions and methods that can be used to analyze misrepresentations, propaganda, or meaning collapses, the book enables readers to become conscientiously aware of their hidden meanings and the harmful effects that they have on society. Identifying key issues of concern, such as climate change and anti-science discourses, it shows how they can be interpreted in terms of basic semiotic theory. This analysis of crucial issues demonstrates how semiotics can be used to raise awareness of critically important matters in modern society, and to encourage the development of more robust and ethical attitudes towards them.

Contenu
Preface 1. Semiotics, Ethics, and Dangerous Discourses 2. Words, Symbols, and Images of Conflict 3. Denial Discourses 4. Decoding Big Lies 5. False Narratives 6. Semiotics with a Conscience References Index