Page 168 - Communication Cultural and Media Studies The Key Concepts

MYTH

in literature on the subject. A common characteristic, however, is the
appearance of cohesion, or ‘seamlessness’. The integration of images,
text, audio and video within multimedia is often made possible by
digital technology, although it may also involve analogue media.
Multimedia has liberated the way in which ideas are presented. The
sci-fi dream of being able to layer sensory experiences in the recreation
of real or imagined worlds – complete with taste, sound, touch and
visual images – may not be fully realised yet, but due to multimedia
developments it appears to be getting closer.
See also: Digital/analogue distribution, New media technologies

MYTH

Myth is generally understood to be a form of narrative that is shared
amongst members of a traditional community or culture. In
communications studies myth is understood as a means of disguising
or masking ambiguities within a culture, and to a certain extent its role
can be understood as ideological. Its theoretical application is usually
anthropological, psychoanalytical and/or semiotic.
The anthropological understanding of myths is influenced by the
work of Claude Le ´vi-Strauss, who argued that myths are unique to
specific cultures and are used as a means of explaining the workings of
the world: they are thinking machines. He argued that these
explanatory narratives worked to ‘deal with contradictions in
experience, to explain the apparently inexplicable, and to justify the
inevitable’ (Turner, 1993: 72). The contradictions inherent in human
existence were thought through in myths using binary opposition,
simplifying the process of ‘being’ into an either/or scenario. To this
end, myth worked to ex-nominate the gaps that can be understood
to exist between such oppositions.
The psychoanalytical approach carries with it a similar thesis in that
it is concerned with how myths seek to teach universal morals albeit
on a more ‘internal’ level. The work of Jung is influential here, as he
developed what he termed archetypes that he thought were common to
all myths. Jung argued that the archetypical characters in myths guide
individuals into behaving in certain ways, and proffer, for instance,
preferred types of gendered behaviour as a means for reaching our
ideal humanity (see O’Shaughnessy, 1999: 147–154). Like Le ´vi-
Strauss’ understanding, Jung’s also is based on a series of binary
oppositions as a means of masking contradictions.

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