Media Symbol System

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Wetzel, C. Douglas, Radtke, Paul, H. and Stern, Hervey W. (1994) Instructional effectiveness of video media. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Publishers. USA.
Chapter 9: Symbol Systems and Media

• The concept of media symbol system is often used to refer to the idea that media differ in the ways that they represent information and that these affect how knowledge is extracted. P181
• Information presented in a message may be symbolically coded in various ways that require some transformation for a learner to acquire knowledge. P 181
• Schemes of several symbols related by rules for arranging and combining them become a symbol system when they are used consistently with respect to a particular field of reference. For example, the field of reference for alphabetic notation is sound events or pronunciations; for musical notation, it is musical performance; and for photographs, it would be the objects shown. P181
• Notationality refers to the extent to which symbol systems are unambiguously mapped onto a field of reference. A notational symbol system is one in which there is a strong, clear, and consistent correlation between a discrete set of symbols and a corresponding set of objects or concepts in the field of reference. Examples of notational systems with direct correspondences are written languages, musical notation, and mathematical symbols and formulas. P182
• Symbol systems used in film and television: Salomon (1979) held that film and television are generally not symbol systems themselves. Rather they are media where many symbol systems are used – a “meeting place” for multiple codes or symbol systems… They are media that can use the syntax and semantics of photography, cinematography, print, speech, dance, music theatre, science, engineering, and the like. P183
• These notions may reflect a fallacy in attributing a potential for using many symbol systems with what is actually realized in many instances. For example the talking head lecture realizes little potential in simply being a transmission vehicle, and perceived benefits of motion may only be realized when discriminations are provided for relevant content. P184
• Differences in the information carried by symbol systems require different amounts of mental recording prior to their subsequent elaboration. Decoding and elaboration of information from symbol systems: Decoding or recoding is the translation of information from its surface communicational code into an internal one. Subsequent elaboration of information in memory refers to its being rehearsed related and compared to other previously learned information and transformed or manipulated by symbolic means. P185

Alberto Ramirez Martinell