A Semiotic Analysis On The Meaning-generation Mechanism Of Micro-blog Hot Topic

Marshall McLuhan (McLuhan,1992) once said that media are the motivation of human society. With thedevelopment of the technology of integrating internet, cell phones and other media, micro-blog as a new form ofmedia comes into being. Micro-blog has changed people’s way of obtaining and sharing information and israising a “micro revolution”. It is a very popular instant messaging system that allows a person to post brief textmessages (commonly known by users as “tweets”) up to140characters in length. Tweets can be posted andreceived via computers, mobile phones or other network-connected terminals. With micro-blog, anyone is able torealize self-presentation, emotional release and idea exchanges at anytime, anywhere, through anyway. With itsrapid development, micro-blog platforms provide more and more functions. At present, almost all the micro-blogplatforms provide recommendation and indexing functions for hot topics. Since it’s conception, research onmicro-blogs has been done home and abroad. The research abroad mostly concentrates on the micro-blogplatform itself, the applications of micro-blog, and interdisciplinary researches on micro-blog. Most of theresearch at home concentrates on the profit model of micro-blog. Some of the research at home concentrates onthe micro-blog platform itself, and little research concentrates on the application of micro-blog. In spite of all theachievements, it can be seen that most of the research only focuses on the surface structure of micro-blog fromthe perspectives of communication; few have devoted themselves to the meaning-generation mechanism ofmicro-blog from the perspective of semiotics. Thus, the present study tries to explore the meaning-generationmechanism of the hot topic in micro-blog.The present study selects one hot topic—cruise ship runs aground off Italy, which is heatedly discussed bothin Twitter and Sina micro-blog, to investigate the meaning-generation mechanism of the micro-blog hot topicand the similarities and differences between Twitter and Sina micro-blog in the way of presenting the meaning ofthe micro-blog hot topic, basing on Algirdas Julien Greimas’ semantic description steps and Roland Barthes’semiotic theory. According to the analysis, it can be concluded that the meaning of the hot topic is produced andconstructed through the process of signification. Two signifying processes are involved. The first signifyingprocess produces denotative meaning, namely denotation. The second signifying process produces connotativemeaning, namely connotation. At the denotative level, the hot topic title fulfills the function of sign via the firstorder of signifying process. On this level, the hot topic title as a sign is the product of the combination ofsignifier and signified. This process gives birth to the denotation of the hot topic title. The denotation refers tothe event itself. The denotation plays the role of the signifier of connotation which owns its signified in the second order of signification. In the second order of signification, the denotation of the hot topic title is emptied,distorted, or implanted, and ultimately gains new meaning through attaching itself to additional signified insocial context. In presenting the meaning of micro-blog hot topic, there are similarities and differences betweenTwitter and Sina micro-blog. The denotations of the hot topic in Twitter and Sina micro-blog both refer to theevent itself, including the constitute elements of the event, such as when, where, how the accident happened, andwho was involved in the event. The connotations of the hot topic in Twitter and Sina micro-blog are both formedin the process of transmitting in micro-blog, namely formed in the social context and culture background.However, there are still differences between Twitter and Sina micro-blog. Twitter users tend to express thedenotative meaning of the hot topic in their tweets, while Sina micro-blog users tend to express both thedenotative meaning and connotative meaning of the hot topic in their tweets. Besides, Sina micro-blog users tendto provide much more information related or not to the event itself in their tweets, while Twitter users tend toprovide information exactly related to the event itself in their tweets. From the perspective of the tweetsthemselves posted by micro-blog users, both Twitter users and Sina micro-blog users tend to use adjectives toreflect their evaluation or value judgment on the event, use verbs to reflect the behavioral logic of the event itselfand the social actions that people take when the event occurs, and use nouns to reflect the constitute elements ofthe entire event such as the objects, persons, and places that related to the event. However, there are stilldifferences between tweets of Twitter and Sina micro-blog. Twitter users are inclined to use adjectives morefrequently than Sina micro-blog users to describe the objects and people involved in the accident. While Sinausers are inclined to use adjectives more frequently than Twitter users to express their viewpoint or evaluation onthe hot topic. Furthermore, Sina micro-blog users tend to use nouns that are not the exact constitute elements ofthe event more frequently than Twitter users. This shows that Twitter users tend to provide information exactlyrelated to the event itself in their tweets, while Sina users tend to provide much more information related or notto the event itself in theirs tweets. This is in line with American’s philosophy of talking the main dish andChinese philosophy of getting much more information related or not on the topic, being unaware of beingconcentrated on one thing in the meantime.