Myth

Bignell, J. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4874-1601 (2017) Myth. In: Ouellette, L. and Gray, J. (eds.) Keywords for Media Studies. New York University Press, New York, pp. 123-125. ISBN 9781479859610

Abstract/Summary

This chapter explains that "myth" in media analysis refers to how words and images are systematically used to communicate cultural and political meanings, in texts such as advertisements, magazines, films, or TV programmes. The chapter briefly outlines the methodology of semiotics, which proposes that our perception and understanding of reality is constructed by words and other signs. Media mythologies support ideologies naturalizing consumerism and acquistiveness, economic and gender inequality, and environmental degradation. Analyzing contemporary myth can be difficult because current ideologies are made to seem commonsensical, but there is need for the powerful semiotic methodologies that have been embedded in media studies for half a century.