Evaluating Messages

and Images
PROF. MARIA CECILIA M. JALBUENA
ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR IV
COLLEGE OF ARTS & SCIENCES
 Learning Outcomes
1. Evaluate multimodal texts critically to enhance receptive
(listening, reading, viewing) skills
2. Convey ideas through oral, audio-visual, and/or web-
based presentations for different target audiences in
local and global setting using appropriate registers
3. Adopt awareness of audience and context in presenting
ideas
 Evaluating messages in this era is made
simpler. Looking at them through several lenses
is helpful as culture is arbitrary in nature. It
conveys ideas that are distinct and rooted in
myriad sensibilities. What one experiences is
what one brings to the table to further explain
what is depicted in the picture, video or any
form of illustration.
▪Grand narratives have come to extinction.

▪Advertisements emerge in the limelight as ground-

breaking technology that advances advocacies.

▪Tiny details manage to awaken their sensibilities.

 Lesson Outline:
A. Linguistic Landscapes
B. Geosemiotics
C. Kinds of Signs
D. Online Landscapes
 a.
Linguistic
Landscapes
 What is a linguistic landscape?

- is the "visibility and salience of languages on public and

commercial signs in a given territory or region" (Landry
and Bourhis 1997:23)
- is a thing that one can see that do not necessarily need
words to express a thought
 LINGUISTIC LANDSCAPES
Examples:
* Top-down signs contain official (i.e., institutional) information, often
related to regulations, designations, or public announcements.

* Bottom-up signs contain all other types of information that is

communicated by private, commercial, or subcultural actors.
EXAMPLES:

billboards signages
billboards
EXAMPLES:
signages

billboards signages
EXAMPLES:

street names
EXAMPLES:
Examples:

billboards signages
traffic regulations
6
 EXAMPLES:

billboards
tweets
EXAMPLES:

graffiti
EXAMPLES:

memes
 b.
Geosemiotics

11
 What is geosemiotics?

Geosemiotics is the study of the social meaning of the

material placement of signs in the world. By signs, we mean
to include any semiotic system including language and
discourse (Scollon & Scollon, 2003; in Mooney & Evans,
2015).

12
EXAMPLE:
EXAMPLE:

billboards signages
 c.
Kinds of Signs
Examples: 4 KINDS OF SIGNS
1. REGULATORY SIGNS
- it describes a range of signs that are used to indicate or
reinforce traffic laws, regulations or requirements which
always apply either or at specified times or places upon a
street or highway, the disregard of which may constitute a
violation, or signs in general that regulate public.
- it indicates authority, is official or with legal prohibitions.

6
EXAMPLES:

billboards signages
Examples: 4 KINDS OF SIGNS
2. INFRASTRUCTURAL SIGNS
- it labels things or directs for the maintenance of a building
or any infrastructure.

- it includes all the physical systems such as the road and

railway networks, utilities, sewage, water, telephone lines and
cell towers, air control towers, bridges, etc., plus services
including law enforcement, emergency services, healthcare,
education, etc.
EXAMPLES:

billboards signages
Examples: 4 KINDS OF SIGNS
3. COMMERCIAL SIGNS

- any sign, display, or device designed, intended or used to

encourage or promote purchase or use of goods or services.

- it advertises or promotes a product, an event, or a service in

commerce.
EXAMPLES:
Examples:
Examples: 4 KINDS OF SIGNS
3. TRANSGRESSIVE SIGNS

- are put into place without authorization and therefore may be

wiped out or removed by the authorities. Recognized signs are
originally transgressive signs that get official recognition
afterwards, e.g., as works of art.

- if it violates (intentionally or accidentally) the conventional

semiotics or is in wrong place.
EXAMPLES:
 What is a graffiti?

Graffiti is an unsanctioned urban text (Carrington, 2009; in

Mooney & Evans, 2015). It conveys power and control to the
person or group behind the production of graffiti.

It is a way for disempowered people to make a visible

mark, to disrupt the landscape that is increasingly
occupied by the increasingly powerful.
EXAMPLES:
Examples:

billboards signages
 d.
Online Landscapes

21
 netizen
✘ These are people who go online. The term netizen is an abstraction
of the words internet and citizen.

✘ Netizens are metaphorically considered as the citizens of the virtual

world.

22
 Examples of Online Landscapes
A. YouTube
- is an American video-sharing platform headquartered in San Bruno,
California, USA. YouTube is an online video platform owned by Google. It is the
second most-visited website in the world. In 2019, more than 500 hours of video
content were uploaded to YouTube servers every minute.
B. Twitter
- is an American microblogging and social networking service
on which users post and interact with messages known as TWEETS.
- provides opportunities and resources for making choices in
how we create a personalized linguistic and semiotic landscape (Gillen
& Merchant, 2013; in Mooney & Evans, 2015).

24
C. Memes
- is a term given to any posts, language or photo that has an
uptake to a social, moral, or political idea that most of the time seems
funny.

- are contagious patterns of cultural information that get

passed from mind to mind and directly generate and shape the
mindsets and significant forms of behavior and actions of a social
group. Memes include such things as popular tunes, catchphrases,
clothing fashions, architectural styles, ways of doing things, icons,
jingles, and the like (Knobel & Lankshear, 2007; in Mooney & Evans,
2015).

25
EXAMPLES:

billboards signages
memes
EXAMPLES:

billboards signages
memes
EXAMPLE:

memes
PM is the