Meaning in the Media: Discourse, Controversy

Meaning in the Media addresses the issue of how we should respond to competing claims about meaning put forward in confrontations between people or organisations in highly charged circumstances such as bitter public controversies and expensive legal disputes. Alan Durant draws attention to the pervasiveness and significance of such meaning-related disputes in the media, investigating how their 'meaning' dimension is best described and explained. Through his analysis of deception, distortion, bias, false advertising, offensiveness and other kinds of communicative behaviour that trigger interpretive disputes, Durant shows that we can understand both meaning and media better if we focus in new ways on moments in discourse when the apparently continuous flow of understanding and agreement breaks down. This lively and contemporary volume will be invaluable to students and teachers of linguistics, media studies, journalism and law.

Acknowledgements	p. xi
Introduction	p. 1
Meaning troublespots	p. 2
Approaches to meaning	p. 5
Historical context for a media dispute culture	p. 11
Outline of main arguments	p. 13
Why meanings matter	p. 14
Communication failure and interpretive conflict	p. 17
From personal disagreement to meaning troublespot	p. 19
Introduction	p. 19
Interpretive disagreement	p. 19
Informal disagreement and more public 'media' disputes	p. 21
Communication and the nature of disagreement	p. 25
The concept of 'meaning troublespots'	p. 26
Types of interpretive dispute	p. 29
The problem of interpretive gridlock	p. 30
Summary	p. 32
Signs of trouble	p. 33
Introduction	p. 33
Three kinds of trouble	p. 33
Interaction between communication categories	p. 41
Usefulness of communicative distinctions	p. 43
Communication and social harm	p. 45
Summary	p. 46
Different kinds of meaning question	p. 48
Introduction	p. 48
Limits of interpretation	p. 48
Meaning not a single question	p. 50
Conflicting attitudes towards questions of meaning	p. 63
Summary	p. 64
Making sense of 'meaning'	p. 65
Meaning and the appeal to semantics	p. 67
Introduction	p. 67
Meaning not an 'open and shut' case	p. 67
Meaning wonderland	p. 69
Meanings of meaning	p. 72
Problems with applying semantics in interpretive disputes	p. 78
Summary	p. 79
Interpretive variation	p. 81
Introduction	p. 81
Should a hundred meanings blossom?	p. 81
Code and inference	p. 84
Creativity and risk	p. 87
Boundaries of legitimate inference	p. 89
Public circulation of meaning	p. 93
Summary	p. 94
Time-based meaning	p. 95
Introduction	p. 95
Meaning in the mind	p. 95
When does a meaning become a meaning?	p. 96
Closure and continuing dialogue	p. 99
Meaning approximation	p. 101
Given time and attention	p. 103
This will mean more later	p. 107
Summary	p. 108
Verbal disputes and approaches to resolving them	p. 111
Meaning as a knockout competition	p. 113
Introduction	p. 113
Fighting over meaning	p. 113
Argument culture	p. 115
Need for counselling in a meaning triangle	p. 116
Conflict and cooperation	p. 120
Caught up in the act	p. 122
Clever footwork between meanings	p. 126
Summary	p. 127
Standards of interpretation	p. 128
Introduction	p. 128
Adjudicating meanings is different from interpreting	p. 128
Sources of interpretive authority	p. 129
What creates a 'standard'?	p. 131
Conceptual and procedural standards	p. 133
Interpretive standards and legal outcomes	p. 142
Summary	p. 144
Analysing disputes in different fields of law and regulation	p. 145
Defamation: 'reasonably capable of bearing the meaning attributed'	p. 147
Introduction	p. 147
Libel and the meaning of words	p. 147
Defamatory potential: an illustration	p. 151
Ordinary and extended meaning	p. 162
Capable of bearing the meaning attributed	p. 168
Defamatory meaning and common knowledge	p. 171
Summary	p. 173
Advertising: 'not only what is said, but what is reasonably implied'	p. 174
Introduction	p. 174
Commercial information and persuasion	p. 174
Advertising and promotional discourse	p. 176
How discourse represents products and services	p. 177
Advertising law and regulation	p. 179
Product and service claims	p. 180
Beyond product and service claims	p. 191
Deciding what an advert is telling you	p. 192
The average consumer	p. 195
Generalised interpretive strategies	p. 196
Summary	p. 198
Offensiveness: 'If there is a meaning, it is doubtless objectionable'	p. 199
Introduction	p. 199
Meaning and boundaries of acceptability	p. 199
Cause for complaint	p. 201
Meaning in action	p. 213
Interpretive variation and standards	p. 219
Symbolic shock effects	p. 222
Summary	p. 223
Conclusion	p. 225
Trust in interpretation	p. 227
Introduction	p. 227
Meaning and speculation	p. 227
Risky information	p. 231
Trust and suspicion	p. 235
Pragmatic interpretation	p. 237
Summary	p. 239
References	p. 240
Index	p. 250
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Meaning in the Media: Discourse, Controversy and Debate

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