Semiotics and Web content planning

Some have said that the mainstream acceptance and interest in the Web can be credited to the relatively recent ability of hypertext to display images. Inarguably this greatly increased the Web's potential as a communication tool, but also raised more questions. Can images express meaning as accurately or powerfully as language? Is imagery capable of producing a language-like meaning?

I don’t know the answers to these questions. But I can relate their significance to what I, at my very low-level of sophistication in Web content design, find important when using imagery and language. First, I think that imagery is quite effective in enhancing the immediacy of any online content, but it is still secondary to today’s primarily text-based form of online communication. The rising generations of young people, raised with access to the Internet, are increasingly “show me” in their attitudes to things they read about online. They want to see proof; imagery is critical in fulfilling this audience’s demand, yet there are pitfalls as this is a global audience where meaning is not always universal. Web content creators should closely scrutinize the underlying meaning of these imagery/text combos.

This week’s editing assignment provides a useful, if very basic illustration of what I’m trying to say. Easter Island is an isolated, mysterious settlement about which many, but not all readers are likely to have some basic awareness. “Easter” has significance in the Island’s history only because it was “discovered” on Easter day by a Dutch explorer. Had I linked to external pages or displayed images that communicated a relative over-importance of Easter (in the Island’s history), I would risk obscuring the significance, or meaning of the Island’s total history—a secondary theme of my “remix.” Moreover, I would distort the main idea of my page— the Island as a modern travel opportunity—which is itself devoid of all references to Christianity save for an inline reference to Christian missionaries.

Easter has perhaps more significance in the Judeo-Christian community than anywhere. However, even in reference to an island bearing this holy day’s name it is an example of a term, or cultural idea with associated imagery, that should be communicated with care in front of a global audience.