Fourteenth International Conference on The Image

Abstract

Making and sharing meaning is a lifetime practice. As children, we’re taught particular cultural codes to define relationships between people, things and places and to assist us to communicate these to one another in a cultural context. The late Stuart Hall argued “any sound, word, image or object which functions as a sign, and is organized with other signs into a system which is capable of carrying and expressing meaning is, from this point of view, ‘a language.’” Of interest to this chapter is the language of film making in US graduate schools, since graduates likely will participate and contribute to the $700 billion in media generated each year in the US alone. After examining the top 10 ranked film and media production curricula in the nation, we found only one institution among the top 10 where representation was specifically a part of the film making curriculum. We argue the study of signs is essential education for media makers, given their access to media systems that distribute meaning across the globe. We advocate for media programs to develop a Center for Sight and Sound, where meanings and signs consciously or unconsciously embedded in media works are identified, examined and critiqued to ensure accurate and authentic representations across race, ethnicity, gender and other personal characteristics.