Ganaele Langlois Paper "Technology, Language, Media: Towards a Mixed Semiotics Framework" accepted to ICA Conference 2007

The Infoscape Research Lab is proud to announce that Ganaele Langlois's paper has been accepted to the International Communication Association Conference 2007 (May 24-28). The ICA admission process was highly competitive this year, only 45% of submissions were accepted. The paper's title and abstract are listed below.

Technology, Language, Media: Towards a Mixed Semiotics Framework

Abstract

This paper calls for a critical assessment of the theoretical and methodological separation between the question of medium and the question of content in the field of communication studies. There is a need to acknowledge the complexity of media systems in their deployment of technologies of communication to materially shape meanings. Rather than separating the content from the technology, it becomes necessary to examine how processes of signification are created through specific technocultural environments. This paper argues that Deleuze and Guattari’s work on mixed semiotics offers a robust theoretical framework for analyzing the non-linguistic processes at stake in the shaping of meanings. In particular, Deleuze and Guattari’s insistence on the examination of how a-signifying semiologies use semiologies of signification to shape material intensities into new realities is central for examining the power relations at stake in the processes of signification in media systems.