is the material semiotic organisation and expression of the design in the form of a
communicative event or text. The design is itself transformed in the production via
the meanings brought forth by the process of articulation and the semiotic resources
of the materials and modes that are used.
Alongside production stands Distribution, ‘the technical ‘re-coding’ of semiotic
products and events, for purposes of recording (e.g. tape recording, digital recording)
and/or distribution (e.g. radio and television transmission, telephony)’ (Kress and van
Leeuwen, 2001: 21). The point made here is that the process of distribution (the
medium) is semiotic and can add additional layers of meaning in the way that a song
for instance is technically recorded. The distribution of worksheets or images in
schools is an interesting example of the semiotic character of distribution. As people
photocopy and pass them on the image-quality deteriorates, details are lost, colour
becomes grey scale, images are transformed, page numbers and the origins of
worksheets are slowly removed by the hasty positioning of papers in the machine and
so on. In other words, the medium of a ‘message’ shapes the semiotic potentials it
makes available and how these are actualised:
Technology enters fundamentally into the semiotic process: through
the kinds of meaning which it facilitates or favours, and through the
differential access to the means of productions and reception which it
provides.
(Kress and van Leeuwen, 1996: 233)
The facilities of new technology, discussed in Chapter Three, are drawn into the
analysis of the thesis.
Semiotic Resource
A key distinction between traditional semiotics and social semiotics lies in the
distinction between semiotic ‘resource’ and ‘code’. Semiotic systems are traditionally
seen as the basis of a code, sets of rules for connecting signs and meanings. Once two
45