METASTRUCTUREMetastructure refers to the overarching framework which supplies rules regarding the relationship between meanings on the page or within the 'frame.' Judith Williamson defines metastructure as follows: "The advertisement provides a supreme arena for this: a 'metastructure' where meaning is not just 'decoded' within one structure, but transferred to create another. Two systems of meaning are always involved: the 'referent system' and the product's system; e.g., the world of glamour, and the world of perfumes. It has already been pointed out that the meta-system, the actual point of transference, is itself devoid of 'content' [meaning]....except insofar as meaning is constantly assumed through the form of its perpetual translation." (Williamson, 43).The operation of advertising metastructures is closely linked to the question of metacommunication in ads.
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