Socio-Semiotic “Reading of the Truth” in the Context of Virtual Communication

Abstract

The paper deals with specific qualities of communication forms on selected websites (24 sata. hr, Index. hr, The Guardian and The New York Times) in accordance with the theoretical instruments of social semiotics. We find that fundamental principles of this discipline are of paramount importance in trying to explain the significance and influence of media messages on shaping awareness of the world. We have followed poststructuralist semiotic tendencies, and we have tried to emphasize the need for signs to be observed primarily as dynamic formations, as semiotic resources which are used in the process of creating meaning and which represent the cornerstone of multimodal content as the third level of virtual communication on which we basically founded this paper. Furthermore, given the context, the way, the character and the occurrence frequency of the term terrorism on the aforementioned websites in a two-month period, we tried to show how certain topics cross narrower, in this case political issues and become a global interest that simultaneously communicates in several segments and creates a specific sign system that spreads to very different areas of interest by corresponding and managing different areas of knowledge while simultaneously influencing the design of our political, ideological, social and cultural attitudes.