Polysemic Texts Presentation

•        Polysemic texts are texts that have various interpretations/meanings.

–      Polysemy is not specific to texts, but occurs within all types of media

–      These different interpretations or meanings are influenced by social context à Who we are surrounded by helps to shape the way we interpret media (how we view things, what we perceive to be our interests and concerns).

–      Meanings/interpretations are not endless: interpretive constraint

•        Aspects such as race, gender, class, and sexuality can help determine the way media is interpreted

–      Gates reading à prior knowledge can impact interpretation

•        People in a higher class may have more exposure to this knowledge

–      Bible, Emojis, songs/music videos (class), gifs (class), text messages

–      BLM: some view it as bringing light to Black lives and saying they matter too, while others view it as saying only Black lives matter

–      Different cultures may view certain things as offensive while it is “normal” for other cultures: Redskins team name

–      Women might look farther into the meanings of things, men typically take things for what they are

–      Although it is not always the case, sex for men may mean pleasure whereas for women it may mean love 

–      On the other hand, men might see “revealing” outfits to mean that the girl wants to have sex when the girl may just be wearing it because she likes it