Klaus Krippendorff

Responding to cultural demands for meaning, user-friendliness, and fun as well as the opportunities of the emerging information society, The Semantic Turn boldly outlines a new science for design that gives designers previously unavailable grounds on which to state their claims and validate their designs. It sets the stage by reviewing the history of semantic concerns in design, presenting their philosophical roots, examining the new social and technological challenges that professional designers are facing, and offering distinctions among contemporary artifacts that challenge designers. Written by Klaus Krippendorff, recognized designer and distinguished scholar of communication and language use, the book builds an epistemological bridge between language/communication theory and human-centered conceptions of contemporary artifacts. Clarifying how the semantic turn goes beyond product semantics and differs from other approaches to meaning, Krippendorff develops four new theories of how artifacts make sense and presents a series of meaning-sensitive design methods, illustrated by examples, and evaluative techniques that radically depart from the functionalist and technology-centered tradition in design. An indispensable guide for the future of the design profession, this book outlines not only a science for design that encourages asking and answering new kinds of questions, it also provides concepts and a vocabulary that enables designers to better partner with the more traditional disciplines of engineering, ergonomics, ecology, cognitive science, information technology, management, and marketing.

A New Foundation for Design

The Semantic Turn

Information theory always has the dual appeal of bringing important concepts to the study of communication in society, and of providing a calculus for information flows within systems. This book introduces readers to basic concepts of information theory, extending its original linear conception of communication to many variables, networks, and higher-order interactions (including loops) and developing it into a method for analyzing qualitative data. It elaborates on the algebra of entropy and information, shows how complex models of data are constructed and tested, describes algorithms for exploring multivariate structures using such models, and gives illustrative applications of these techniques. The book is designed as a text but it can also serve as a handbook for social researchers and systems theorists with an interest in communication.

Structural Models for Qualitative Data

Information Theory

Compiled and edited by a recognized leader in the field and author of the best-selling text on content analysis of recent times.

The Content Analysis Reader

Nour Halabi

This interdisciplinary collection brings together leading and emerging scholars of discourse, conceptualizing how discursive practices shape social, political, and even material realities today. Discourses in Action presents a wide range of essays that explore fundamental concerns for the social consequences of text, talk, and discursively informed actions and possibilities of discursive engagement. It opens new perspectives on what language does and the differences that scholarly and practical contributions can make. Chapters cover diverse topics, ranging from political struggles, climate change, social revolutions, ethnicity, violence and other often unexpected patterns of discursive consequences. Its essays also explore the cultural contingencies that underlie discourse practices which are usually ignored when analysed from within a taken-for-granted culture. Providing a useful examination of current discourse studies, this interdisciplinary volume is ideal for students and researchers within media, communication, discourse analysis, linguistics, cultural studies, and the sociology of knowledge.

What Language Enables Us to Do

Discourses in Action

Communication and Control in Society

Klaus Krippendorff is an influential figure in communication studies widely known for his award-winning book Content Analysis. Over the years, Krippendorff has made important contributions to the ongoing debates on fundamental issues concerning communication theory, epistemology, methods of research, critical scholarship, second-order cybernetics, the social construction of reality through language, design, and meaning. On Communicating assembles Krippendorff’s most significant writings – many of which are virtually unavailable today, appearing in less accessible publications, conference proceedings, out-of-print book chapters, and articles in journals outside the communication field. In their totality, they provide a goldmine for communication students and scholars. Edited and with an introduction by Fernando Bermejo, this book provides readers with access to Krippendorff’s key works.

Otherness, Meaning, and Information

On Communicating

The Second Edition of Content Analysis: An Introduction to Its Methodology is a definitive sourcebook of the history and core principles of content analysis as well as an essential resource for present and future studies. The book introduces readers to ways of analyzing meaningful matter such as texts, images, voices – that is, data whose physical manifestations are secondary to the meanings that a particular population of people brings to them. Organized into three parts, the book examines the conceptual and methodological aspects of content analysis and also traces several paths through content analysis protocols. The author has completely revised and updated the Second Edition, integrating new information on computer-aided text analysis. The book also includes a practical guide that incorporates experiences in teaching and how to advise academic and commercial researchers. In addition, Krippendorff clarifies the epistemology and logic of content analysis as well as the methods for achieving its aims. Intended as a textbook for advanced undergraduate and graduate students across the social sciences, Content Analysis, Second Edition will also be a valuable resource for practitioners in a variety of disciplines.

Klaus Krippendorff

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