Article

Name: Digital Fuzziness or das Ungefähre The Semiotics of Cultural Practices in the Digital Realm

Authors: J. Krasni

UNIVERSITY OF NIŠ

Abstract: This paper reflects on the fuzzy relation between representational practices in the digital realm, the meaning which emerges out of them and their role in digital discourses. The media practices acquired by the media users impact significantly on interpersonal online discourses. The users are, however, only vaguely aware of the semiotic systems and the culture(s) they (re)create. Various forms of approximate knowledge can be identified when analysing the recurring patterns od practices in different contexts. They show how content related meaning making processes intertwine with both the media format and its distributional infrastructures. The theoretical concept of approximate knowledge (das Ungefähre) will be exemplified with three formats of online multimodal discourses. The digital fuzzy practices encompass the relation between the distributed media content and user generated content (UGC) which share the same means of production, similar dissemination infrastructure and aesthetic standards. This relation represents the basic thread of the discursive mass production of sense in the online realm, which is based on approximate knowledge and fuzzy discursive production by the users. This content in its flow represents series of actions within the discourse, and it cannot be analysed outside of the technical infrastructure which it needs in order to exist.

Keywords: multimodal discourse, online media apparatus, semiotics of digital realms, approximate knowledge, cultural practices

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