5. On the other side in Saussure’s concept of the sign there is no room for the relation of the sign (signifier+signified) to the referent. Then the sign is defined as a differential entity. Its meaning is dependant on its place in the system, or more accurately the concrete meaning is read from the context. This review of the basic language signs serves as a basis for the conclusion that the signified (signifé), as a part of its signification system is arbitrary. (Fiske-Hartley.1978. p.39). With this the two pillars (manner of display and arbitrariness) are identified through the stirring phenomenon of fiction and at the same time the categories on which the degree reality effect depends. Unlike Saussure, in his concept of the sign C.S. Peirce includes its relation to the referent. This co-relation between the sign and its referent is named Modality. In our case, since the issue is about the relation of the text to reality, we speak about textual modality. It can include three kinds of values: truthfulness (logic), connection and possibility (hypothesis). The value of the modality is the highest in the relation truthfulness and the lowest in the hypothetical instances. In a similar way the value of the modality of the iconic sign will be higher than the value of the same of the index and the symbol, respectively and consequently. For the above-mentioned narrative complex the hypothetical modality will be relevant. If we accumulate the three key terms on which the text is grounded (manner or style, arbitrariness, hypothetical modality) the contribution of thoroughness and approximation while forming our social concept of reality will be more visible.
Let us go back to Welles. It is clear that the performance of his radio-play on another cultural environment (e.g. China) would not have had the same effect as in USA simply because several other factors which in the moment either were not relevant or were conceptualized in a weaker form outside America were crucial for its persuasiveness. It is about the influence of ideology which frames the interpretations of the narrative text. In the case of Welles, ideology is realized through two things: rhetoric of the genre (SF) and ideological concept of the informational medium. In the development of the rhetoric of a given genre in the direction of reaching the realistic effect, independent on the relation to reality many factors have influence, but for us most important is the most significant, namely generic realism (Kress-van Leeuwen, 1996, p.159), which increases its value through quantitative factors, i.e. according to the number of appearances and the gradual naturalization. A similar case of reaching the realistic effect we have in the soap operas, where with contingence and burdened context the strings with objective reality are lost. During this the so-called psycho-emotive realism or subjective realism as identified above dominates.
The second important factor during the transfer of Welles’s fiction into reality is the influence of ideology of the informative medium, in this case the radio.
6. The high value of the persuasiveness of the informative media in the USA considerably attributed to the corresponding experience of the text. To clarify this concrete situation I will supply the ideological matrix of the informative media (http://www.transparencynow.com/news/Ideol.htm p.1-2.8/22/98) In other words, it consists of:
1. Conviction that the journalists are but messengers of event and not actors in the same, i.e. it eliminates the factor of their direct participation and interest in the events
2. Conviction that there is no connection or agreement between the actors and the journalists
3. Conviction that the journalists always neutralizes his/her bias towards the events
4. Conviction that the journalist is compelled to present the both sides and interview the both sides.
7. As a conclusion to this text I will note that the medium with all of its rhetoric and persuasiveness in a way distributes and labels the modality, i.e. the relation of the sign to reality. Inevitable to mention here is M.McLuhan with his elegant formulation “… medium is a message…” which simply warns us that the medium and the code are not neutral in the relation to the meaning and the message. The modality of the text is realized as a intermingling of everyday perception of appearances and objects, textual models, genre models and presentations.
Translated by: Aleksandar Čolović, Sead Jigal