Digital Generation's Meaning-Making in Web-Based Communication Activities

摘要

In the communication process, the human is not the message recipients solely but also the interrupters of the message meaning. Theorists of social studies developed some concepts of message meaning as semiotic theories. These theories highlighted the essential features of individual. Introducing the approaches of interpreting semiotics concepts, the meaning-making process was considered according to its meanings, which certainly involved an interpreting agent. These theories were the principles to explore various sign system with different cultural backgrounds. However, the limited understanding was explored for the digital generation who have grown up with complicated digital information system and advanced communication technologies. This paper offers a brief revision of the semiotic theories. It also examined the roles of interpreting meanings those involved in the semiotic process through web-based communication activities. Content analysis of several web-based communication activities would be employed as the research method in this study. It is expected that the result of this study would provide insight for more exploration of the communication principles of the digital generation.