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In what ways can an image's context change over time?

Introduction
Meaning is not fixed, it can be said without hesitation, after all how can it be? But the bigger
question is why is it not fixed? How can the meaning of an image, sound, language be different
than it's intended message? How can that context change over time? This is the overall question of
this essay and that is what I aim to show. I will be consulting the theories from various academic
thinkers from different realms of study, such as media scholar Henry Jenkins, post-modernist,
Jean-Francois Lyotard, semiotician, Roland Barthes and political theorists Antonio Gramsci, and
Karl Marx. Using the theories and thoughts of post-modernism such as remixing and repurposing
images, semiology, and marxist critical theory, including hegemonic ideals I attempt to answer this
question, using the depiction of two American presidents, President Kennedy and President
Obama as my main examples, using semiology to uncover how Kennedy was depicted and show
how it has changed over time through repurposed and remixed images of Obama.

The Post-Modern Idea

Post-Modernism is a way of thinking that proposes that the meaning of a work of art, media
message is not fixed and in fact can have multiple meanings, this is known as polysemy (Sturken,
Cartwright, 2001, p25.) Barthes uses the denotative and the connotative in order to decode
different meanings from an image that are present at the same time, (Sturken, Cartwright, 2009,
p20.) In simple terms, the denotative is what that image is and the connotative is what is the
deeper meaning of the image, and this is often decided through interpretation through semiotics
(Sturken, Cartwright, 2001, p28.) According to Barthes' the system of semiology can used to
decode the meaning of any form: sound, linguistics, music, objects etc. (Barthes, 1977, p1.)

"In respect of non-linguistic systems, says Barthes, this 'associative total' of signifier
and signified constitutes simply the sign." (Hawkes, 1997, p131.)

Hegemony
The President of the United States is supposed to be the figurehead of American societal values.
Someone to be looked towards in times of crisis. This can certainly be said of presidents such as
John F. Kennedy, whose quick and decisive measures during the Cuban Missile Crisis helped avert
a possible nuclear holocaust. Antonio Gramsci offers the theory of Hegemony. Through which
process, dominant ideologies kept social control, where values became “common sense.” (ibid,
p54.)
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Hegemonic views could certainly be applied to Kennedy, because of his reputation as one of the
most charismatic Presidents in the history of the country, but Presidents that lacked in their
leadership qualities or cleverness such as George Bush would become subjects of ridicule and
criticism through remixing and repurposing. Appendix A is an example of the “hegemonic”
Kennedy, addressing his audience with confidence, the American flag in the background as a
symbol of his patriotism. The connotative being that he has plans for the future and prosperity of
the country and wishes to pledge this to his “fellow Americans.”

The Negotiation of Meaning

Cultural sociologist, Stuart Hall develops the concept of hegemony but relates it to audience
theory. In addition to the hegemonic/dominant reading he theorises that an audience may take any
of three potential positions when it comes to “reading” an image. These are the dominant
hegemonic, where the viewer receives the dominant reading without question (ibid, p57)
Secondly, negotiating the meaning of an image to find a different interpretation and finally an
oppositional reading, in which the reader or viewer does not accept the meaning of an image by
either disagreeing or rejecting it. There is also the option of polysemy, the meaning of an image is
multiple and can affect viewers in differently, to some it is humorous to others insulting.

The Grand Narrative's End

Hegemonic ideologies can also be related to Jean-Francois Lyotard and his theories on post-
modernism relating to the “grand narrative.” The modernistic idea that there are these “narratives”
such as religion or science that represent “common sense”. Lyotard criticises the grand narrative in
his book The Postmodern Condition: A Report on Knowledge, believing that because of
advancement, the grand narratives are losing what makes them function
""Identifying" with the great names, the heroes of contemporary history, is becoming
more and more difficult."
(Lyotard, 1979 p14.)
In this instance, it is the president the is the hero. Rather than identifying with this hero, the people
negotiate imagery of the heroes of contemporary history
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The False Consciousness

Engel's theory, accredited to Marx of the false consciousness has some relevance. The Cold War
was a period of mutual distrust and rivalry between the communist Soviet Union and the capitalist
United States. The interpretation of an image of a political power can differ depending not only on
personal opinion, but global and social values as well. Who is it that determines these social
values? Those in power, and this is where the false consciousness comes in. The concept is very
simple:
“(...) misrepresentation of dominant social relations in the consciousness of
subordinate classes.”
Little, D. “False Consciousness,” International Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences
2008.
How would those with oppositional views wish for their social classes to view their rivals the United
States, and by extension, the president?

How Meaning Changes - Introduction

Meaning is constructed by inclusion, by exclusion, by context and by intention, but it is not fixed, it
is open to interpretation through semiology which allows us to interpret this meaning in a
structuralist way. The meaning of an image is often open to manipulation, in order to change the
original message and collapse its context, where the image has been subverted so much, the
original context is lost. Often for critical purposes but equally as often, manipulating an image to
make a joke or have fun.

For example, I took an image of the Lincoln Memorial Statue, juxtaposed with the America flag to
which I “painted” signs that would make you think of The Joker from Batman. My intention was to
have fun, the result is the banner for my blog pages. However, other's may see this as a criticism
of American social values. Here I introduce the ways of a meaning changing due to context,
reappropriation or repurposing and remixing.

Ways of Change - Repurposing

Firstly, meaning can be changed due to context through repurposing. There is plenty of
precedence for this happening throughout history but for the purposes of this essay I will focus on
the repurposing of imagery of Barrack Obama. Using the example of the Obama “Hope” poster.
(Appendix B) It's context is Obama looking slightly left of the camera, in an almost pop art style,
with hope written at the bottom. It's meaning is of hope, hope for the future, reinforced by Obama's
posture and pose, looking to the future.
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This image was open it imitation and parody, as all images are, and there are a wide array of
different examples of this, from more depictions of The Joker to criticisms of Colonel Gaddafi etc.
The most simple repurpose is by adding the word “No” consequently collapsing the context of the
original message. (Appendix C)

Ways of Change - Remixing

Remixing images and media products such as video, speech etc. This is a result of the
increasingly popular remix culture. Henry Jenkins is an authority on this culture. In his blog he
displays the research of Whitney Phillips, a PhD student at the University of Oregon. Her research
focused on the “socialism” Obama poster (Appendix D) This is just one example of remix culture in
action. Phillips postulates the possible meaning of the image above, before coming to the
conclusion that the original creator did not intend the image to mean anything, much like my own
attempt at remix culture. (Phillips, W. 2009.) The image was reused by opposing parties to criticise
the president.
"These works comment on, subvert, critique, ridicule, celebrate, (...)
Jenkins, H. DIY Video 2010: Political Remix (Part One), 2010
A very accurate description of remix culture, but it omits that some people participate for the fun of
creating and remixing, joining a participatory culture.

Conclusion
The meaning of an image, sound, or language is most certainly not fixed. We can see this is so
simply through our own personal engagement and interpretation. Not everyone will take the same
reading or position on an image. Stuart Hall's audience theories lead to our understanding of this
however it is also common sense. Through Barthes and semiotic analysis, we are able to decode
the meaning of an image in a structuralist way through signs and symbols, as well as understand
the basic levels of connotation and denotation. Through developments in society, ideals and
authority have become negotiated. Kennedy represented the hegemonic ideal of the President,
with the vast majority sharing the hegemonic/dominant image. Barrack Obama represents how
now, power and authority is questioned, images are repurposed for critical reasons by some
parties, but also used as entertainment and personal enjoyment.
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References
Barthes, R. Elements of Semiology. Hill and Wang, 1977

Hawkes, T. Structuralism and Semiotics. Routledge London, 1997

Jenkins, H. 2010. DIY Video 2010: Political Remix (Part One)

http://henryjenkins.org/2010/11/political_remix_video_can_empo.html

Little, D. 2008. “False Consciousness,” International Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences.

http://www.encyclopedia.com/topic/False_consciousness.aspx

Lyotard, J.F. 1979. The Postmodern Condition: A Report on Knowledge. Manchester: University
Press, 1984. [Online] Available from: http://experiment.iitalia.com/librarysplit2/Lyotard,%20Jean-
Francois%20-%20The%20Postmodern%20Condition%20-%20A%20report.pdf

Phillips, W. 2009. Unmasking the Joker

http://henryjenkins.org/2009/08/unmasking_the_joker.html

Sturken, M. and Cartwright, L. 2001(a). Practices of Looking, A Guide to Visual Culture. Oxford
University Press, New York.

Sturken, M. and Cartwright, L. 2001(b). Practices of Looking, A Guide to Visual Culture. Oxford
University Press, New York.

Sturken, M. and Cartwright, L. 2001(c). Practices of Looking, A Guide to Visual Culture. Oxford
University Press, New York.

Sturken, M. and Cartwright, L. 2001(d). Practices of Looking, A Guide to Visual Culture. Oxford
University Press, New York.

Sturken, M. and Cartwright, L. 2009. Practices of Looking, A Guide to Visual Culture, Second
Edition. Oxford University Press, New York.
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Appendix A: Kennedy, date

unknown

Appendix B: Obama "Hope" 2008

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Appendix C: Obama "No

Hope" A repurposed image,
date unknown

Appendix D: Obama
Socialism poster, 2009
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Bibliography
Lyotard - The Postmodern Condition - University of Minnesota Press, 1984
http://experiment.iitalia.com/librarysplit2/Lyotard,%20Jean-Francois%20-%20The%20Postmodern
%20Condition%20-%20A%20report.pdf

Written by Lyotard, documenting his views and opinions of the modernistic ideas of the grand
narrative, how they are becoming negotiated. Useful as my background for my grand narrative
argument.

Barthes - Mythologies - Paladin, 1973

I thought that perhaps Barthes theories on mythologies might contrast well with Gramsci's theory
of hegemony. I decided to not pursue this idea in the end because I was content with what I had
without this concept.

Sturken and Cartwright - Practices of Looking, Oxford Press, 2001

Sturken and Cartwright - Practices of Looking Second Edition, Oxford Press 2009

The core text(s) for both the course and this essay. Using the ideas of Stuart Hall and audience
readings, Barthes and his semiotics as well as Gramsci's theory of Hegemony, forming much of
the basis for my argument.

Giddens - Conversations with Anthony Giddens: Making Sense of Modernity, Stanford University
Press, Stanford, California, 1998

I toyed with the idea of exploring modernistic ways of thinking towards depictions of Presidents of
America. In a sense I did do this (hegemonic depiction being a modernistic concept) but I did not
need to reference Giddens or use his work. Perhaps I could have done so to contrast with
Lyotard's grand narrative theory but I might have started to try and cram too much into the word
limit and lose my argument.

John Berger - Ways of Seeing, Penguin Group 2008 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LnfB-

pUm3eI&feature=PlayList&p=872405DBCBDFF922&index=0&playnext=1

Both the television series broadcast in 1972 and the adapted book may have come in handy if I
were answering a different question. Because it explores how an images context changes
depending on where it is viewed and the surrounding environment. Not what I was trying to answer
in this essay.
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Henry Jenkins - Confessions of an Aca-Fan - Whitney Phillips Obama Why So Socialist? -

http://henryjenkins.org/2009/08/unmasking_the_joker.html

Phillips's research was very useful in analysing the meaning and production of the Socialist Joker
poster that I spoke about in the essay. I was able to use her research in order to show how images
are remixed to create new meaning.

Henry Jenkins - Confessions of an Aca-Fan - DIY Video 2010: Political Remix (Part One)
http://henryjenkins.org/2010/11/political_remix_video_can_empo.html

More contribution to how remixing images change an image's context, this time from Jenkins
himself. He is an authority on remix culture and I instantly thought he could be referenced in some
manner or another to show the purposes of remixing.

Political Remix Video - http://www.politicalremixvideo.com/ - examples of political remixes to suit a

purpose.

Just a website full of different examples of remix culture videos and images that I could have used
semiology to analyse but I had enough examples to further my argument.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cultural_hegemony#cite_ref-0

I consulted this wikipedia article in the hopes of trying to better understand Gramsci's theories on
cultural hegemony, I was unsuccessful, but it led me to Gramsci's published notes on the subject.

Antonio Gramsci, edited by Joseph A. Buttigieg, The Prison Notebooks, Columbia University
Press, New York, 1975

The Prison Notebooks is a publication of Gramsci's notes while he was imprisoned. Here he
discusses cultural hegemony as a means of capitalist control. I attempted to look through this
publication to see if it was the source of Gramsci's theory that hegemonic values were “common
sense.” It can actually be found in Practices of Looking 2001.
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Christopher L. Pines - Ideology and False Consciousness Marx and his historical progenitors,
State University of New York Press, Albany. 1993

One of the concepts I had hoped to use in my essay was Marx's false consciousness idea, through
reading sections of this book, I discovered that the theory comes from Engels but is accredited to
Marx. The goal was to show that hegemonic depictions form a false consciousness.

http://www.encyclopedia.com/topic/False_consciousness.aspx

More information about false consciousness but it had a nice, simple description of what the idea
is in a single sentence, which is what I was looking for in the previous entry of this bibliography.

Fahrenheit 9/11 video clip - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pJvRUL81ZU8

The link above is to a clip of Michael Moore's Fahrenheit 9/11 documentary. I was thinking of using
the depiction of Bush playing golf as an example of the non-hegemonic depiction. In the end I
moved away from this because I wanted to focus only on two Presidents, Kennedy and Obama.

Another image I found during my research, that I thought of using as

an example to describe remix culture being used as a critique. I chose
against this because I had decided on my images and this one was
unneeded.

This image is my attempt at remix culture that I briefly mention in the essay. It shows an example
remix culture being done purely for amusement, but to others may had a different meaning.