Introduction
In truth, every text has meaning. However, the big question about the connotation of a specific text revolves around who produces and who consumes such meanings. Is the reader of a text the creator or consumer of its meaning? By reading a text, respective readers could certainly generate their own understanding. As well, there is a possibility of these readers using the meaning of such texts as directly conveyed by the creator. In light of these two prospects, one stands out, the fact that a reader is a producer rather than a consumer of meanings.
Consideration of Meaning through Theoretical Framework
To begin with, culture provides the basis for meaning. For example, when the producer of a book shares its copies across the globe, people of different cultures find an opportunity to read and interpret in their own way. More often than not, the authors share their books without sending another copy that translates the existing literature. For that reason, they seem to want the readers to interact with their inscription and find meaning on their own. Such circumstance may result in people interpreting text based on their cultural understanding and context of things. In one culture, it may be acceptable to use the phrase You are hot to mean that someone is beautiful.
On the other hand, the same expression in a different culture may have a direct translation to imply that the referred person has a high body temperature (Parker 2015, p. 32). This illustration demonstrates the fact that people in different parts of the world may consume information in different ways regardless of their understanding of what the creator intended. Most of the time, readers use text and construe the information without the intervention of the creator. This situation leaves them with no option but to produce meaning from what they read. Owing to the influence of culture, the connotation of text often comes out differently depending on individual readers; hence, demonstrating the point that the reader is a producer rather than a consumer of text. Wertsch (2000, p. 124) affirms this assertion by stating that readers play the most significant part in the translation of text compared to the creators of such texts.
The ultimate level of reading then again infers the general connotation of a text. Since the readers are the ones involved in this final stage to a larger extent, it more convincing than not that they are the ones who produce much of the meanings. The language used in a manuscript shapes the portrayal of the existing text and the relationship between the patterns and content involved essentially express the fundamental meaning. In this regard, the ultimate users of a text conceive the content of the piece of an inscription and understand it in line with the language used by the creator. While examining a text, readers are aware that they are exploring the creation of someones work. Perhaps, they may have a glimpse of the intention behind the piece of writing, the purpose of the author to reveal something in a specific way. However, considering the fact that such intention may not be clear, the readers are may decide to make their own interpretation and, therefore, become the producer of meaning (Bell 1997, p. 57). Whats more, the readers may be intentionally conscious of their own efforts to find connotations in a text. For example, if a text says you are smart, to mean neatness of the physical body, the reader may decide to manipulate the phrase to imply sharpness of the brain. Being at the final stage of reading, such interpretation of the reader will conclude the overall meaning of the text, affirming the point that the reader is a producer rather a consumer of text.
The critical interpretation of text depends on the reader. According to Eagleton (2014, p. 314), it is the critical analysis that produces meaning. What does this mean? It implies that being a discerning reader who questions the information presented, thinks about intentions of the author, and decides whether the views of the author are worthy of the bargain, makes one the producer of meanings. To generate connotation of a text, the readers play the role of asking questions about the content they read. In this respect, they carefully examine the claims of the writer, as well as the quality and use of the creators supporting evidence. In their production of meaning, the readers unavoidably draw upon their respective experiences and their knowledge of alternative manuscripts. Nonetheless, the foundation of their analysis remains rooted in the text itself (Messner & Siegel 2015, p. 79). To be good producers of meanings, readers usually learn the methods and essential skills of examining texts critically. College students, for instance, will have to employ their acquired knowledge, specifically from the text, for them to analyze, interpret, and produce meanings. In such critical examination, the reader becomes a producer rather than a consumer of text.
Since the readers play the role of analyzing text, there a number of things that affirm they are the producers of meanings rather than just consumers. Such things include the consideration of the authority of the writers in their analysis, the logic of the argument of the writers, and the way the writers get the readers interest. Altogether, the analysis of these three elements leads to the production of meaning. Readers usually use both the information that they have about the individual writers as a person (life experiences, affiliation, political, training) and the texts approach to determining the credibility of the writer. This way, they are in a position to determine if the respective writers are knowledgeable and the values and biases that may be playing a part in their arguments. In addition, the readers often consider the logic of the authors argument (Chandler 2014, p. 66-67). The generation of the meanings usually includes the readers asking themselves what the writers want them to believe, as well as whether the supporting evidence and reasons convince them of the creators point of view. That withstanding, the readers play the part of examining facts and their credibility, in addition to analyzing the reasoning that links the truths or pieces of evidence to the main contention.
Readers moreover produce the meaning of texts by considering how the author gets their interests. In keeping with Kazin (2013, p. 212), the creators of texts may use one or more method or option to get the readers both emotionally and intellectually involved in the written information. One of the strategies employed by the authors includes the attempt to get the readers to evoke respect from the authors authority (for instance, via the tone) or identify with the writer. Other strategy includes the attempt to get the readers caring about a problem, cause, or subject (maybe by appealing to their emotions using detailed descriptions, anecdotes, or shocking statistics). One more strategy involves the attempt to get the readers to bring themselves into line, or rather align themselves with a superior category of readers (for example, environmentalists, the educated women, and so forth). The final method, in this case, takes account of the use of the expected values and interests of the readers as the basis for a different or alternative argument. Once the readers are part of the text both emotionally and intellectually, they tend to get the deeper meanings of the information presented since they are completely part of the literature and the systems of the language used. In the process, they generate connotation of the text and, consequently, become the producers of meaning instead of just being the consumers.
The producers of meaning, unlike the consumers, will often ask themselves about the techniques used by the writers and the ways in which they are used. They will always want to know whether such methods are really effective or not (Burke, Crowley, & Girvin 2000, p. 17). As a producer of information, the readers will always consider the use of style and language of the writer. In many texts, the writers make a number of decisions regarding style and language, which play the role of influencing the responses of the reader. In light of this, the readers often examine various elements of the inscription: length or brevity of passages, use of punctuation, connotation, and choice of words, the formation of sentences, and overall tone. From these measures undertaken by the readers, they can generate meanings by understanding how the choices of the writers about style and language help their argument. They can also produce meanings of the text through the comprehensions of what such choices reveal about the argument of the writers.
Another thing that confirms a reader as a producer rather than a consumer of information is the ability and decision to consider the ideology that informs the content presented in texts. When generating meanings, readers always make an effort to reveal the ideologies: the systems of ideas, values, and beliefs of the world, which underlie the respective texts. They do this in a simple and positive way of writing down the ideas and words valued or represented by the creator within the. Consequently, they have the opposite of the phrases and words used written down; the pairs or binaries of opposites play the part of revealing the ideologies that inform the texts. The recent decades have progressed to surpass the days when people considered the author as the locus of meanings. Today, the readers just make effort to find connotation of texts to the exclusion of the writers. The move in the postmodern world, as ascertained by Burke, Crowley, & Girvin (2000, p. 23-24), is that the loci of the meanings of texts are whatever the readers, or maybe, the readers in their communities, make them out to be.
In some argument, Chandler (2014, p. 69) justified the point that readers are producers of meanings this way: Meanings refer to what the readers create or bring with them to the texts, or the effect of the text produced in the readers, or what the readers choose to do with the texts. According to Chandler, the connotation of art is nonetheless, what it makes the readers or viewers feel. The author goes ahead to claim that literature refers to anything that the readers (or maybe the communities they come from) construe it to be. In essence, this is an extra step away from the intention of the author. In other words, Chandler argues that texts cannot speak for themselves; they need readers to give them meanings. De Berg (2012, p. 56-58), on the other hand, alludes to how research works in psycholinguistics and cognitive psychology have underscored the creative activities of the readers. In keeping with De Berg, cognitive psychologists give an explanation of the informational and interpretive actions of readers with regard to schema theory. The idea of schemas or rather schemata emanated in 1932 from the works of Sir Frederick Bartlett. The British psychologist defined schemata in his classic work as past reactions organized actively, or an active arrangement of experiences encountered in the past. Whats more, Frederick clarified the meaning of memory and defined it as a process of creativity in the making use of reconstruction in such schemata.
In relation to the theory of contemporary schema, the metal schemata play the role of mediating memory, interpretation, comprehension, and perception. Mental schemata are the hierarchical frames or structures used in the organization of knowledge. A number of psychological experimentations have demonstrated the significance of peoples anticipations in making sense of fresh experiences. In line with the works of De Berg (2012, p. 56-58) and Chandler (2014, p. 69-72), the thing that embodies such anticipations or expectations is schemata. Readers, in their act of reading use schema, which provides them with mental structures and backgrounds that help them to go beyond the information presented in the text. Even some of the most ordinary texts call for the attention of readers to go beyond the unambiguously stated things with the aim of making logic of them. However, at times, it is difficult to know the degree of such understanding of the text in their regular reading. Burke, Crowley, & Girvin (2000, p. 26) mentions that a reader draws upon various inventories of the schema, in part due to rather persistent differences in experience (knowledge and background) and of somewhat temporary differences in perspective.
For readers with considerable experience, the act of reading involves a constant process of inference making. It takes account of evaluating the significance and validity of texts, linking them to previous viewpoints, knowledge, and experience, as well as the consideration of implications. There are no suggestions in such psychological explanations that texts mean whatever the readers want it to mean (Parker 2015, p. 35). Nonetheless, it surely means that it is the role of a reader to make active use of schema in making sense of the presented literature. It as well implies that different persons who read texts may use different schemata and that their interpretations of text may vary. Bearing in mind the point that reading is not passive retrieval of information and that texts do not have one inflexible meaning, one would easily accept the notion that a reader is a producer rather than a consumer of meanings. Not only do the readers draw their respective meanings from the text effectively but also the creators have depended upon the readers in being in a position to do so. Messner & Siegel (2015, p. 89) support the idea that texts are often subjects to exterior modulations. According to the theorists, these modulations relate to preceding experience of text and language. For that reason, it is easily conclusive that the individual understanding of texts, which makes them a producer of meanings, is a critical part of reading.
Conclusion
In summing up, there are a number of reasons that justify the point that a reader is a producer rather than a consumer of meanings. The discussion herein explored some of such reasons, for example, the culture and came to ascertain that every text has a meaning generated by the respective readers. In other words, understanding of a text depends on the reader more than it does on the creator or author. In light of all prospects of this discussion, it becomes apparent that a reader is a producer rather than a consumer of meanings. The information discovered in this paper suggests that all texts are not only subject to the understanding or elucidation of their readers but also that they keep inherent connotation that is changeable through perspective and time. Reading any text as deduced from this assessment makes the readers go through a chain of steps to extract and compile meaning. The readers role is as simple as to read the text. By doing so, they let the processes of expression, interpretation, and communication take place and come to realize that they are the architect of meanings to a greater extent than a consumer.
