Governing Meaning

Abstract

In the introduction, I defined meaning as the space where the transition from signification to making sense problematically unfolds, where words, images, and sounds potentially cease to be simply signs and become existential markers through which we experience belonging (or not) in the world, our being (or failing to be) with others. In the social media environment, meaning has become a technological and commercial process. We now have a handful of social media corporations (Google, Facebook, and Twitter in North America) that dominate the field and market of participatory communication. There is, of course, the notable exception of Wikipedia as a not-for-profit entity, but the fact is that what we understand as social media are corporations that derive a profit out of users’ communication.

Some parts of this chapter were published in an earlier article titled “Meaning, Semiotechnologies and Participatory Media,” Culture Machine 12 (2011). http://www.culturemachine.net/index.php/cm