'Factivity' or Speech as Myth

Fee-Alexandra Haase

- Abstract -

The object of this study is myth. Since Barthes' Mythologies this communicative state was recognized in contemporary culture. Based upon Barthes' study we will examine the process of mythification in the ancient Greek mythology and contemporary culture using the example of contemporary journalism. Mythification is a process of instrumentalisation of technical tools configuration a framework of a scenario that forms contents and actions. Due to the formalization of principles, the mythification process can be highly manipulative, since it eliminates reality and forms a discourse of factivity.

1.   Introduction:

    The Language of Myth as the Speech of Description and its Cultural History

Accounts about the origin of language in the mythologies of many cultures exist. Verbarg (1963) discussed the myths of the origin of languages. (Verbarg) A common religious assumption is the language distributed by a god or gods in religious societies. Such an assumption of a transcendentally established language is deeply rooted in the cultural history of humankind. It also affects research about language. Paine wrote in The Age of Reason (chapter IX): "The word of God is the creation we behold: And it is in this word, which no human invention can counterfeit or alter, that God speaketh universally to man. Human language is local and changeable, and is therefore incapable of being used as the means of unchangeable and universal information. The idea that God sent Jesus Christ to publish, as they say, the glad tidings to all nations, from one end of the earth unto the other, is consistent only with the ignorance of those who know nothing of the extent of the world." (Paine) Lévi-Strauss used the term 'mythemes' for basic units of myths. They can form binary oppositions of a myth. It is distinctive and descriptive. The ancient Greek word for myth had as its main meanings 'speech'. The term mythos (μῦθος) comprises 'word' and 'speech' in Greek poems of Homer and other poets. It is used in the Odyssey for public speech. Other meanings are conversation, thing said, fact, matter, thing thought, unspoken word, purpose, design, saying, talk of men, rumor, tale, story, narrative without a distinction of true or false. The meaning 'fiction' as term opposite to logos (λόγος) as historic truth) it was used by Plato (Pl. Phd. 61b). (Liddell; Scott) In The Oxford Dictionary of Philosophy is written on myth: "Thus superficially diverse sets of myth, or works of art, or practices of marriage, might be revealed as sharing the same pattern. Structuralism owes its origin to the work of Saussure in linguistics, and one form of the doctrine holds that all sign systems are linguistic in nature." (Blackburn 1996: 217) According to the Merrian-Webster Online Dictionary, mythology means:

"1: an allegorical narrative

2: a body of myths: as a : the myths dealing with the gods, demigods, and legendary heroes of a particular people b : mythos 2 <cold war mythology>

3: a branch of knowledge that deals with myth

4: a popular belief or assumption that has grown up around someone or something : myth 2a <defective mythologies that ignore masculine depth of feeling - Robert Bly>

(Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary)

In research semiotic assumptions are structured as triploid relations producing meaning. This common semiotic construction we find in semiotic approaches we discuss now. According to Hover, oral transmission of mysteries leads to procedures in establishing research in the authenticity done in scholarly works, which resulted in high standards of manuscript production. (Hover) Barthes wrote in Mythologies that a myth is a semiotic construction of the signifier, the signified, and the sign: "In myth, we find again the tri-dimensional pattern which I have just described: the signifier, the signified and the sign. But myth is a peculiar system, in that it is constructed from a semiological chain which existed before it: it is a second-order semiological system. That which is a sign (namely the associative total of a concept and an image) in the first system, becomes a mere signifier in the second." (Barthes) The semiotic triangle is a model of how linguistic symbols are related to the objects they represent. It was originally presented in Ogden and Richards' book The Meaning of Meaning. The relations between the triangular corners 'thought', 'symbol', and 'matter' is assumed to be basic. We can think about a thing we see or we can read (and this means we see) something. We propose the following semiotic triangle: Meaning consists of the added sense of its contents, the depiction as representation of the meaning, and the representation as referential meaning. For example the sense is "coming rain", when we see a dark cloud, the representation is the reference between the cloud and the material it is made of, and the depiction is the presented cloud or the word cloud. Doyle defines mythology in Encyclopedia Mythica as follows: "Before defining the term 'mythology' one needs to define the meaning of the word 'myth'. The word itself comes from the Greek 'mythos' which originally meant 'speech' or 'discourse' but which later came to mean 'fable' or 'legend'. In this document the word 'myth' will be defined as a story of forgotten or vague origin, basically religious or supernatural in nature, which seeks to explain or rationalize one or more aspects of the world or a society." (Doyle) Cassirer (1946: 8) in Language and Myth state that "the special symbolic forms are not imitations, but organs of reality, since it is solely by their agency that anything real becomes an object for intellectual apprehension, and as such is made visible to us." Chandler wrote in Denotation, Connotation and Myth in Semiotics for Beginners that "beyond its 'literal' meaning (its denotation), a particular word may have connotations: for instance, sexual connotations. (.) In semiotics, denotation and connotation are terms describing the relationship between the signifier and its signified, and an analytic distinction is made between two types of signifieds: a denotative signified and a connotative signified. Meaning includes both denotation and connotation." (Chandler) Levi-Strauss asked in The Structural Study of Myth that "in order to understand what a myth really is, must we choose between platitude and sophism? (.) If a given mythology confers prominence on a certain figure, let us say an evil grandmother, it will be claimed that in such a society grandmothers are actually evil and that mythology reflects the social structure and the social relations; but should the actual data be conflicting, it would be as readily claimed that the purpose of mythology is to provide an outlet for repressed feelings. Whatever the situation, a clever dialectic will always find a way to pretend that a meaning has been found." (Levi-Strauss) Levi-Strauss wrote in The Structural Study of Myth that in order "to invite the mythologist to compare his precarious situation with that of the linguist in the prescientific stage is not enough. As a matter of fact we may thus be led only from one difficulty to another. There is a very good reason why myth cannot simply be treated as language if its specific problems are to be solved; myth is language: to be known, myth has to be told; it is a part of human speech. In order to preserve its specificity we must be able to show that it is both the same things as language, and also something different from it. Here, too, the past experience of linguists may help us. For language itself can be analyzed into things which are at the same time similar and yet different." (Levi-Strauss) Aarons in Global Myths Surrounding the Origin of Speech wrote that in Australia "an awful story of cannibalism from the people of Encounter Bay offers their explanation of the origin of language. "In remote time an old woman, named Wurruri lived towards the east and generally walked with a large stick in her hand, to scatter the fires around which others were sleeping, Wurruri at length died. Greatly delighted at this circumstance, they sent messengers in all directions to give notice of her death; men, women and children came, not to lament, but to show their joy. The Raminjerar were the first who fell upon the corpse and began eating the flesh, and immediately began to speak intelligibly. (.) Another group of Australian aboriginals, the Gunwinggu, tell of a goddess in dreamtime giving each of her children a language of their own to play with." (Aarons) Waramurungundju is a fertility goddess of Australia, which in the dreamtime taught her children to talk and gave them all a different language to play with.

In the cultural history of the word 'myth' in post-classical time it became a special form of narrative about persons of classical time narrated in fictional stories. In contrast to a narrative that clearly references a historical event or persons, the myth as a narrative lacks such a referencial function to a concrete object or event. Speech as 'myth' uses as a carrier of meaning related to reality a highly semantically encoded language that needs to be decoded. Speech as 'myth' also can serve as a reference to a concept it expresses in the myth. Functioning as myth, a speech can contain not only the narrative itself, but also associated meanings. The speech as myth has no reference to an authentic or fictional person, object, or event. Its meanings can be understood by the interpretation of the signs and its meanings implemented into the speech. Our research focuses on preserved forms of myths evaluating the contemporary media and representations concerning the theme 'myth' and its impact. The study culminates in the description of the quality 'mythicity' and the process of 'mythification' as the process, which entails the developments of the production of a myth in various forms.

2.   The Case of the Greek Myth as a Type of Speech

The term μῦθος was used by Homer for anything delivered by word of mouth, a word, or a speech opposed to the work (ἔργον). In the epic language is was used for a speech in the public assembly, a talk or conversation, counsel, advice, command, or order, the subject of speech, the thing or matter itself, a resolve, purpose, design, plan, a saying, saw, proverb, the talk of men, rumor, a tale, story, or a narrative. As fiction opposed to the λόγος as historic truth is was used by Plato in the Phaedrus (Pl. Phd. 61b). (Liddell; Scott. Intermediate Greek-English Lexicon) Ovid opens book 1 of the Metamorphoses with an invocation: "My soul is wrought to sing of forms transformed to bodies new and strange! Immortal Gods inspire my heart, for ye have changed yourselves and all things you have changed! Oh lead my song in smooth and measured strains, from olden days when earth began to this completed time!" (Ovid. Metamorphoses) Ovid in the Metamorphoses (5) narrates the creation: "Before the ocean and the earth appeared  -  before the skies had overspread them all - the face of Nature in a vast expanse was naught but Chaos uniformly waste. It was a rude and undeveloped mass, that nothing made except a ponderous weight; and all discordant elements confused, were there congested in a shapeless heap. As yet the sun afforded earth no light, nor did the moon renew her crescent horns; the earth was not suspended in the air exactly balanced by her heavy weight. Not far along the margin of the shores had Amphitrite stretched her lengthened arms, - for all the land was mixed with sea and air. The land was soft, the sea unfit to sail, the atmosphere opaque, to naught was given a proper form, in everything was strife, and all was mingled in a seething mass - with hot the cold parts strove, and wet with dry and soft with hard, and weight with empty void."" (Ovid. Metamorphoses)

Hesiod's Theogony (1) opens with a hymn to the Muses, the daughters of Zeus and Memnosyne, narrating the story of the human-like gods of the Greek mythology: "From the Heliconian Muses let us begin to sing, who hold the great and holy mount of Helicon, and dance on soft feet about the deep-blue spring and the altar of the almighty son of Cronos, and, when they have washed their tender bodies in Permessus or in the Horse's Spring or Olmeius, make their fair, lovely dances upon highest Helicon and move with vigorous feet. Thence they arise and go abroad by night, veiled in thick mist, and utter their song with lovely voice, praising Zeus the aegis-holder and queenly Hera of Argos who walks on golden sandals and the daughter of Zeus the aegis-holder bright-eyed Athene, and Phoebus Apollo, and Artemis who delights in arrows, and Poseidon the earth-holder who shakes the earth, and reverend Themis and quick-glancing Aphrodite, and Hebe with the crown of gold, and fair Dione, Leto, Iapetus, and Cronos the crafty counsellor, Eos and great Helius and bright Selene, Earth too, and great Oceanus, and dark Night, and the holy race of all the other deathless ones that are forever. And one day they taught Hesiod glorious song while he was shepherding his lambs under holy Helicon, and this word first the goddesses said to me - the Muses of Olympus, daughters of Zeus who holds the aegis: "Shepherds of the wilderness, wretched things of shame, mere bellies, we know how to speak many false things as though they were true; but we know, when we will, to utter true things." (Hesiod, Theogony) Hesiod in his Theogony (29) writes that the Muses are the ones that sing about the gods of the Greek mythology: "So said the ready-voiced daughters of great Zeus, and they plucked and gave me a rod, a shoot of sturdy laurel, a marvellous thing, and breathed into me a divine voice to celebrate things that shall be and things there were aforetime; and they bade me sing of the race of the blessed gods that are eternally, but ever to sing of themselves both first and last. But why all this about oak or stone?" (Hesiod, Theogony) Hesiod (Theogony 53) narrates that Mnemosyne and Zeus were the parents of the nine muses who sang about the gods of the Greek mythology: "Them in Pieria did Mnemosyne (Memory), who reigns over the hills of Eleuther, bear of union with the father, the son of Cronos, a forgetting of ills and a rest from sorrow. For nine nights did wise Zeus lie with her, entering her holy bed remote from the immortals. And when a year was passed and the seasons came round as the months waned, and many days were accomplished, she bare nine daughters, all of one mind, whose hearts are set upon song and their spirit free from care, a little way from the topmost peak of snowy Olympus. There are their bright dancing-places and beautiful homes, and beside them the Graces and Himerus (Desire) live in delight. And they, uttering through their lips a lovely voice, sing the laws of all and the goodly ways of the immortals, uttering their lovely voice." (Hesiod, Theogony)

In the Theogony the Muses play an important part in the communication of the Greek mythology. The Muses tell the storyteller of the gods, the Muses communicate the myth. They are an example of the Greek technical, yet also primitive, tool for the distribution of the myth. Besides this mode of the speech as 'myth' the Greek language has developed different other modes for the expression of speech. So the Greek language offers a variety of verbs representing different actions of speaking. The term ἀξιαφήγητος has the meanings 'be worth telling'. The term ἀφήγησις means 'a telling' and 'narrating'. The term ἀνηγέομαι is used for 'tell as in a narrative', 'relate', and 'to recount'; ἀπεῖπον refers to 'speak out'; the term αἰνέω means 'to praise', 'to commend', and 'to approve'. The term διαφράζω comprises the meanings 'indicate distinctly', 'tell fully', and 'give directions'; διεῖπον means 'tell'; the term δύσφραστος has the meanings 'be hard to tell'; the term δύσλεκτος means 'be hard to tell'; ἔσπον means 'tell'; the term ἐξαγγέλλω means 'bring news out' and 'report'; the term ἐξαγόρευσις is used for 'telling out' and 'betrayal'. The terms ἐξαγορεύω and ἐνέπω have the meaning 'relate'. the term ἐξαγορευτικός means 'be fit to explain'. The term ἐξεῖπον means 'speak out'. The term ἐξενέπω means 'proclaim' and 'tell'; the term ἐξερέω is used for the expression of the meanings 'I will speak out', 'tell out', and 'utter aloud'. The term ἐξερέω comprises the meanings 'inquire of', 'question', and 'ask'.

The term ἐκδιηγέομαι means 'tell in detail' and the term ἐκφράζω means 'tell over' and 'recount'; the term ἐκκορυφόω has the meanings 'tell summarily' and 'sum up'. The word ἐκχράω means 'declare as an oracle' and 'tell out'; ἐνέπω has the meanings 'say' and 'tell'. The word ἐπαγγέλλω is used for 'bring news to' and 'announce'; the word ἐπιφωνέω means 'mention by name' and 'tell of'. The word ἐπικαταψεύδομαι means 'tell lies besides'; ἴρω means 'say', 'speak', and 'declare'. The term ὔρητος means 'easy to tell'. ὐδιήγητος means 'easy to tell'; the term εὐκατάψευστος means 'safe to tell lies about'; the term φατίζω means 'say', 'speak', and 'report'; φιλοψευδολόγος means 'be fond of telling lies'. Φραστήρ means 'teller' and 'expounder'. Γεγωνέω means 'proclaim' and 'sing of'; ἡρωολογέω means 'tell of heroes'; καινολογέω means 'tell new'; κακορρήμων means 'telling of ill' and 'ill omened'; καταγορεύω means 'to denounce'; καταλέγω means 'enumerate' and 'recount'. Καταψεύδομαι means 'tell lies against' and 'speak falsely of'. Κλέω means 'make famous' and 'call'. Λογοποιία means 'tale-telling' and 'news-mongering'. Μοιρολογέω means 'tell a man his fate'. The term μυθηγορέωmeans is used for 'to tell stories'; μυθόλογος means 'a teller of legends' and 'romancer'. The term μυθολόγος means 'a teller of legends' and 'romancer'. Μυθολογέω means 'tell mythic tales'; μυθολογεύω means 'relate'; μυθολογητέον means 'one must tell as a legend'. Μυθολογία means 'a telling of mythic legends', 'legendary lore', and 'mythology'. (Liddell; Scott. Intermediate Greek-English Lexicon)

Leonard in The History of Mythology answered the question 'What Is Mythology?' as follows: "While the words myth and mythology are frequently used interchangeably, we will distinguish between them in this class. Therefore, myth will be used when referring to the stories themselves while mythology will be used when referring to the study and analysis of those stories. This essay will demonstrate that questions about the truth value and cultural importance of myths have generated ingenious interpretations and heated disputes ever since the time of Xenophanes and Heraclitus. For two and a half millennia, competition among various schools of mythology has been a struggle over matters of ultimate truth, religious belief, political theory, cultural identity, verifiable history, and social custom. Myth has been variously understood as the revelation of divine mysteries, as primitive science and faulty history, as bad philosophy, as a code containing truths hidden from the uneducated, as the cultural DNA determining a people's identity, as a resource for learning about the material culture of "primitive" peoples, as a window into the workings of the human mind, and as a justification for deplorable acts of cruelty. Indeed, the story of mythology demonstrates emphatically that there is a great deal more at stake in the study of myths than becoming acquainted with amusing cultural artifacts attesting how naïve and superstitious our ancestors were." (Leonard) Fiske wrote in Myths and Myth-Makers. Old Tales and Superstitions Interpreted by Comparative Mythology that Greek names of gods have the etymological history we can trace to the Indian Sanskrit: "This theory of ancient mythology is not only beautiful and plausible, it is, in its essential points, demonstrated. It stands on as firm a foundation as Grimm's law in philology, or the undulatory theory in molecular physics. It is philology which has here enabled us to read the primitive thoughts of mankind. A large number of the names of Greek gods and heroes have no meaning in the Greek language; but these names occur also in Sanskrit, with plain physical meanings. In the Veda we find Zeus or Jupiter (Dyaus-pitar) meaning the sky, and Sarameias or Hermes, meaning the breeze of a summer morning. We find Athene (Ahana), meaning the light of daybreak; and we are thus enabled to understand why the Greek described her as sprung from the forehead of Zeus. There too we find Helena (Sarama), the fickle twilight, whom the Panis, or night-demons, who serve as the prototypes of the Hellenic Paris, strive to seduce from her allegiance to the solar monarch. Even Achilleus (Aharyu) again confronts us, with his captive Briseis (Brisaya's offspring); and the fierce Kerberos (Carvara) barks on Vedic ground in strict conformity to the laws of phonetics. 11 Now, when the Hindu talked about Father Dyaus, or the sleek kine of Siva, he thought of the personified sky and clouds; he had not outgrown the primitive mental habits of the race. But the Greek, in whose language these physical meanings were lost, had long before the Homeric epoch come to regard Zeus and Hermes, Athene, Helena, Paris, and Achilleus, as mere persons, and in most cases the originals of his myths were completely forgotten. In the Vedas the Trojan War is carried on in the sky, between the bright deities and the demons of night; but the Greek poet, influenced perhaps by some dim historical tradition, has located the contest on the shore of the Hellespont, and in his mind the actors, though superhuman, are still completely anthropomorphic. Of the true origin of his epic story he knew as little as Euhemeros, or Lord Bacon, or the Abbe Banier." (Fiske) Fiske in Myths and Myth-Makers. Old Tales and Superstitions Interpreted by Comparative Mythology provides us with the following definition of the myth: "After these illustrations, we shall run no risk of being misunderstood when we define a myth as, in its origin, an explanation, by the uncivilized mind, of some natural phenomenon; not an allegory, not an esoteric symbol,-for the ingenuity is wasted which strives to detect in myths the remnants of a refined primeval science,-but an explanation. Primitive men had no profound science to perpetuate by means of allegory, nor were they such sorry pedants as to talk in riddles when plain language would serve their purpose. Their minds, we may be sure, worked like our own, and when they spoke of the far-darting sun-god, they meant just what they said, save that where we propound a scientific theorem, they constructed a myth." (Fiske) In 1923 the first part of Philosophie der symbolischen Formen was published and 1955 translated as The Philosophy of Symbolic Forms. 1925 the second part of Philosophie der symbolischen Formen with the title Das mythische Denken appeared. As The Philosophy of Symbolic Forms with the subtitle Mythical Thought the second part was published in English at Yale University Press in 1955. Cassirer's last major work was The Myth of the State published posthumously in 1946. Language and Myth appeared in 1925 with a following English translation by Susanne K. Langer in 1946. The collection Symbol, Myth, and Culture: Essays and Lectures of Ernst Cassirer with writings created between 1935 and 1945 was published by Donald Phillip Verene in 1981. Cassirer wrote 1923 about the 'mythical stage of consciousness' in Substance And Function And Einsteins Theory Of Relativity: "A specific perceptual quality would be demanded not only for spatial order, but for temporal order and further for all sorts of quantitative or qualitative comparison, (.) in general it is not obvious how a mere difference in the content of the compared elements should serve to define and separate the various possible types of relation. If two orders are distinguished as orders, some means of conscious connection of the two factors in no way proves their logical equivalence. When the criticism of knowledge distinguishes the spatial and temporal form from the content of sensation and treats it as an independent problem, it does not require the conception of a real separateness of the two in some mythical stage of consciousness. What it affirms and defends is merely the simple thought, that the judgments based and constructed on these forms of relation have a characteristic validity of their own, which is denied to mere assertions regarding the existence of the sensation given here and now." (Cassirer) Conescu (1995: 289) wrote in Mythos and Logos: Parallel Accounts of Sociocultural Evolution: "Recent multidisciplinary research suggests a conjunction of two distinct historical perspectives-especially among ecological theorists-that may be integrated to form a remarkable global picture of humankind's sociocultural origins. Each perspective - which I call "mythos" and "logos" respectively-may be seen as parallel accounts of our sociocultural evolution reaching back to the Paleolithic era. At some early data prior to the conventional assignment of "written history," two separate lifestyles may be delineated." Conescu (1995: 289) developed six sociocultural elements of each lifestyle emphasizing the mythos orientation in the following categories (1) the mythos and logos orientations, (2) metaphysical underpinnings, (3) conceptions of spirituality, (4) ecological relationships, (5) social organizations, and (6) sociocultural self-images.

3.   The Modern Myth: Barthes' Interpretation of Language as Myth

Barthes wrote in Mythologies: "Language lends itself to myth in another way: it is very rare that it imposes at the outset a full meaning which it is impossible to distort. This comes from the abstractness of its concept: the concept of tree is vague, it lends itself to multiple contingencies. True, a language always has at its disposal a whole appropriating organization (this tree, the tree which, etc.). But there always remains, around the final meaning, a halo of virtualities where other possible meanings are floating: the meaning can almost always be interpreted. One could say that a language offers to myth an open-work meaning." Barthes wrote her also that "myth can reach everything, corrupt everything, and even the very act of refusing oneself to it. So that the more the language-object resists at first, the greater its final prostitution; whoever here resists completely yields completely: Einstein on one side, Paris-Match on the other. One can give a temporal image of this conflict: mathematical language is a finished language, which derives its very perfection from this acceptance of death. Myth, on the contrary, is a language which does not want to die: it wrests from the meanings which give it its sustenance an insidious, degraded survival, it provokes in them an artificial reprieve in which it settles comfortably, it turns them into speaking corpses." According to Barthes, a "language which resists myth as much as it can" is "our poetic language. Contemporary poetry is a regressive semiological system. Whereas myth aims at an ultra-signification, at the amplification of a first system, poetry, on the contrary, attempts to regain an infra-signification, a pre-semiological state of language; in short, it tries to transform the sign back into meaning: its ideal, ultimately, would be to reach not the meaning of words, but the meaning of things themselves. This is why it clouds the language, increases as much as it can the abstractness of the concept and the arbitrariness of the sign and stretches to the limit the link between signifier and signified. (.)" According to Barthes, "there is (.) one language which is not mythical, it is the language of man as a producer: wherever man speaks in order to transform reality and no longer to preserve it as an image, wherever he links his language to the making of things, metalanguage is referred to a language-object, and myth is impossible. This is why revolutionary language proper cannot be mythical. Revolution is defined as a cathartic act meant to reveal the political load of the world: it makes the world; and its language, all of it, is functionally absorbed in this making. It is because it generates speech which is fully, that is to say initially and finally, political, and not, like myth, speech which is initially political and finally natural, that Revolution excludes myth. Just as bourgeois ex-nomination characterizes at once bourgeois ideology and myth itself, revolutionary denomination identifies revolution and the absence of myth. The bourgeoisie hides the fact that it is the bourgeoisie and thereby produces myth; revolution announces itself openly as revolution and thereby abolishes myth." Barthes wrote in Mythologies that myth is "the privation of History": "Myth deprives the object of which it speaks of all history. In it, history evaporates. It is a kind of ideal servant: it prepares all things, brings them, lays them out, the master arrives, it silently disappears: all that is left for one to do is to enjoy this beautiful object without wondering where it comes from." Barthes wrote in Mythologies that "myths tend towards proverbs. Bourgeois ideology invests in this figure interests which are bound to its very essence: universalism, the refusal of any explanation, an unalterable hierarchy of the world. But we must again distinguish the language-object from the metalanguage." (Barthes) Barthes asked in Mythologies: "What is a myth, today? I shall give at the outset a first, very simple answer, which is perfectly consistent with etymology: myth is a type of speech." Barthes wrote in Mythologies that "what must always be remembered is that myth is a double system; there occurs in it a sort of ubiquity: its point of departure is constituted by the arrival of a meaning. To keep a spatial metaphor, the approximative character of which I have already stressed, I shall say that the signification of the myth is constituted by a sort of constantly moving turnstile which presents alternately the meaning of the signifier and its form, a language object and a metalanguage, a purely signifying and a purely imagining consciousness." Barthes mentioned that the 'very principle of myth' is that "it transforms history into nature." (Barthes) Barthes wrote in Mythologies that myth is a type of speech: "Of course, it is not any type: language needs special conditions in order to become myth: we shall see them in a minute. But what must be firmly established at the start is that myth is a system of communication, that it is a message. This allows one to perceive that myth cannot possibly be an object, a concept, or an idea; it is a mode of signification, a form. Later, we shall have to assign to this form historical limits, conditions of use, and reintroduce society into it: we must nevertheless first describe it as a form." (Barthes) Barthes also noticed that "speech of this kind is a message. It is therefore by no means confined to oral speech. It can consist of modes of writing or of representations; not only written discourse, but also photography, cinema, reporting, sport, shows, publicity, all these can serve as a support to mythical speech. Myth can be defined neither by its object nor by its material, for any material can arbitrarily be endowed with meaning: the arrow which is brought in order to signify a challenge is also a kind of speech." (Barthes)

4.      A Case of Postmodern Mythification

Luckie listed in 5 Myths about Digital Journalism the following myths:

1. Journalists must know everything

2. Social media is the answer

3. Journalists must have database development skills

4. Comments suck

5. There are no journalism jobs (Luckie)

Pecquerie wrote in From Citizen Journalism Myth to Citizen Journalism Realities: "In fact a very bad guy this old journo: outdated, working for a mainstream media - disgusting, isn't it? -, linked to corporate interests, limited by the newsroom horizon, not very well connected (nor well educated) and with no knowledge of what can interest average people! Moreover, truth and accuracy were no longer his cup of tea . On the contrary, the citizen journalist had so many qualities: as a newcomer, he was young, fresh, innocent, independent, with a lot of new ideas on journalism and democracy and on top of that a real love of truth. But the problem is that this ideal citizen journalist only exists in some bloggers' views. The reality is different with the birth of four categories of citizen journalism, but with very few links between them: the citizen journalist who owns a digital camera or a camera phone and sends shootings to a news organisation during a major event (tsunami, London bombing.) or a local car accident the citizen journalist who wants to cover its local or virtual community and produce targeted content the citizen journalist who is a militant and campaigns for political reasons. How Eason Jordan was fired from CNN by infuriated bloggers in January 2005, was a good example of biased citizen journalism the citizen journalist who is eager to participate to a < conversation > with professional journalists and bloggers. < News is just the beginning > says Jeff Jarvis and, in some cases, it is true." (Pecquerie) Campbell wrote in Introduction to Yellow Journalism: "For all its flaws and virtues, yellow journalism exerted a powerful influence in American journalism at the turn of the twentieth century. Yellow journalism was much decried but its salient features often were emulated. The genre was appealing and distinctive in its typography, in its lavish use of illustrations, in its aggressive newsgathering techniques." (Campbell) Koch in The News as Myth: Fact and Context in Journalism (1990) argued that the 'myth of the news' is 'its supposed objectivity'. (Koch) Lombard wrote in Mitisiteit as Vasis vir Vergelykende Literatuurstudie, met Verwysing na Waterslangsimboliek (2004): "Mythicity can be defined as the deliberate intention of probing the numinous dimensions of human existence by means of literature, i.e. mainly narrative forms." (Lombard) Lombard also wrote that "other related aspects are discussed, namely the importance of the historical context, Jung's theory of archetypes and the unconscious, and the role of interpretational devices such as metaphor, metonymy, symbolism and allegory. If the balance between numinosity and narrativity is not maintained, the mythic potential of a text is usually reduced." (Lombard) Rosenstiel wrote in Five Myths about the Future of Journalism in Washington Post (April 15, 2011): "There are few things journalists like to discuss more than, well, themselves and the long-term prospects for their industry. How long will print newspapers survive? Are news aggregation sites the future? Or are online pay walls - such as the one the New York Times just launched - the way to go? As media organizations plot their future, it's worth discarding some misconceptions about what it will take to keep the press from becoming yesterday's news.

 Myth No. 1: The traditional news media are losing their audience.

 Myth No. 2: Online news will be fine as soon as the advertising revenue catches up.

 Myth No. 3: Content will always be king.

 Myth No. 4: Newspapers around the world are on the decline.

 Myth No. 5: The solution for media organizations is to focus on local news. (Rosenstiel)

Pollard wrote in What's the Difference between Print and Online Journalism?: "Online journalism is different from print journalism. Quite how different, nobody has really worked out yet. It's evolving all the time. I hastily cobbled together my thoughts ahead of the first Online Journalism training course. It's harder to write for the Mirror than the Times. It's harder still to write for the web. Here's why. People read 30% more slowly off the computer screen than off paper. And they read less carefully - scanning. You need to convince readers you're good - and do it quick - to get them to stick." (Pollard) Harper wrote in Journalism in a Digital Age in the MIT Communication Forum: "The current catch phrase in journalism today is "the defining moment." (.) So far, the Internet and the World Wide Web cannot set an agenda, primarily because the audience remains small, and many online publications depend on major brand names as the primary sources of information. Therefore, the broadcast outlets and newspapers that operate the Web sites still maintain control of the setting of the journalistic agendas and the public debate. Still, online journalism stands to dramatically alter the traditional role of the reporter and editor." (Harper) Harper compiled a list of the following qualities of internet journalism: 'Intensity of Threshold Value', 'Unexpectedness', 'Sociocultural Values', 'Continuity', 'Cultural Proximity or Relevance', 'Time Span', 'Clarity or Lack of Ambiguity', 'Consonance', and 'Composition'. (Harper)

The mythification of the news is a structural issue depending on the delivery of the news; so the headline is an example for the mythification: here the abstract and minimalized headline information is derived from any concrete and detailed data; the mythification process here is based upon the reduction of information. A headline in the New York Times Online on December 17, 2011 was: "Senate Leaders in Deal to Extend Cuts in Payroll Tax." Here we find no information about the acting persons and the time of the decision. The second line provides the reader with more information: "The 112th Congress lurched toward the end of its tumultuous first session Friday as the House passed a $1 trillion spending bill and sent it to the Senate." (New York Times Online) The same structure applies to the following headline from the 17^th of December 2011: "Stanford Backs Out of Bid to Build Campus in New York. Stanford University dropped its application to build an innovative graduate school, shortly before Cornell announced a $350 million gift to underwrite its bid." (New York Times Online) In the following headline the the New York Times Online (December 17, 2011) expression first metaphorically that the Wulkan Revolt 'takes on a life of its own' followed by concrete details about this statement: "Wukan Revolt Takes On a Life of Its Own. Anger at a possible land deal boiled over in Wukan, China, after a popular villager chosen to negotiate a solution died in police custody." (New York Times Online) On the website International News of the New York Times the headlines were (December 17, 2011): "European Debt Crisis. In Debt Crisis, Gulf Is Yawning Between Italy and Its Politicians." (International News in New York Times) This is also an example of mythification: Abstract processes and countries become the acting entities of the financial crisis in Europe. On the contrary, also headline with detailed information about the acting persons exist, e.g. "Japan's Prime Minister Declares Fukushima Plant Stable. The declaration - which comes nine months after a calamitous earthquake and tsunami destroyed the seaside plant - could set the stage for the return of some evacuees to affected areas." (International News in New York Times)

5.   The Mythification Process and the Quality of Mythicity

We have seen that the Muses in the Greek mythology are an in the mythology itself implemented tool serving to narrate the myth. This singing can be considered an archaic tool of the communication of the contents of the myth. The Muses represent the different arts, which enable the Muses to sing as a unit with each member having distint artificial features in this group of women. Barthes describes the semiotic relationship between the symbolic representatives. Our interest is the medial representation of myth as a general phenomenon of human communication via speech. While we have the archaic tool of mythification in the Greek mythology identified as the songs sung by the Muses, we now look at the tool of mythification in contemporary mass media. Here Barthes already distinguished the impact of the picture on the myth examining the title page of Paris Match in Mythologies. In our study of the News of the New York Times we studied the structure of headlines of the articles. Here we find a shortened, quasi imaginazed form of metaphorical narration; the reader first gets an image about the issue later described in the body of the news. This image can be highly manipulatively arranged. It enables the producer to create a myth. Also pictures can be supporting for this process of mythification in the contemporary media that play an important role in the societies of the 21^st century. Mythification is based upon a scenario of formalized structures or parameters, in which the contents, the issue to be communicated, is presented according to the formal guidelines of the medium. It allows manipulations of the contents / topic according to its own structure and parameters.     

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