How typeface shouts: Cultural mediation processes and the state of that which is visible

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.31921/doxacom.n28a07

Keywords:

Typography, mediation, social imaginary, form and content, visual communication

Abstract

Every discourse is intertwined in a complex network of other discourses, institutions, power relations, and symbolic production, the importance of which is decisive in shaping the social realm. The bodies of these discourses are the object of this study, which reflects on the mediation feature of typefaces. Through an analysis of the use of Blackletter characters during the Nazi period and the previous struggle between Blackletter and Roman characters during the Renaissance, the research exemplifies the cultural processes involved in forms of visualization in the digital age. The impact of information technology affects the creation of the modern collective imaginary which modernity uses to justify its own dynamic, its cultural and cognitive narratives, and its historical development. Typography is a central element of this contemporary collective imaginary, and while it is a sign, it becomes the setting for the struggle between different definitions and meanings: a battle for the possession of the sign that extends to the most trivial areas of everyday life. That is the reason why typeface shouts.

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Author Biographies

  • Mario Francisco Benito Cabello, Rey Juan Carlos University, Spain

    Associate Professor of the Faculty of Communication Sciences at the Rey Juan Carlos University (URJC) and doctoral candidate in the Social and Legal Sciences Programme of the URJC. He holds a degree in Journalism from the Complutense University of Madrid and a Master’s Degree in Cultural Journalism and New Trends from the URJC. His lines of work are journalistic design, typography, journalism and visual communication. He has worked as a journalistic designer between 1990 and 2016 in several national and local newspapers (El Mundo, El Sol, Marca, La Información de Madrid) and magazines (Grupo Z). He is co-editor of the website www.encajabaja.com about press and journalistic design (reference included in university teaching guides), he has participated as a jury member in the Spanish SND awards and as a lecturer in different congresses (Universidad Pontificia of Salamanca), Universidad CEU San Pablo de Madrid and in the URJC.

  • María José Sánchez Leyva, Rey Juan Carlos University, Spain

    Professor and researcher at the Faculty of Communication Sciences of the URJC University. Her lines of work are semiotics and discourse analysis, ethics and political philosophy, communication and collective representations and feminism. She has been involved in many congresses, national and international seminars, courses and workshops as a teacher and lecturer. She has organized, coordinated and directed many sci-entific meetings. She has been teaching and researching uninterruptedly for more than 20 years and is the author of several publications. She belongs to the group UCM Cultura visual: imagen, information y discourse. Her work in recent years has focused on contemporary processes of subjectification as means of social control.

References

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Published

21-06-2019

Issue

Section

Miscellaneous of Research articles and essays

How to Cite

Benito Cabello, M. F., & Sánchez Leyva, M. J. (2019). How typeface shouts: Cultural mediation processes and the state of that which is visible. Doxa Comunicación. Interdisciplinary Journal of Communication Studies and Social Sciences, 28, 133-150. https://doi.org/10.31921/doxacom.n28a07
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