The Tree of Knowledge for Analysis of Television: Using hypertext for semiological media-studies

The role of the Humanities, especially semiology, consists in the analysis and critique of human symbolic activities. Our project, ‘The Tree of Knowledge for TV Analysis (http://www.nulptyx.com/chienoki) at the Interfaculty Initiative in Information Studies of the University of Tokyo, attempts to reorganize the knowledge accumulated in the Humanities by generalizing traditional semiology, focused on the written text, in order to problematize the contents of various new media. In particular, we are attempting to analyze Television. In the early stage of constructing and organizing the database for our project, we use Tinderbox. The major advantages of this software, among others, are: it is always possible to create new links manually; it enables us to write and/or read each note while referring to the general structure. Finally, we think that it is indispensable for the Humanities to use multi-media tools which support the emergence of knowledge in the digitalized environment.