Ideograph A unit of analysis in ideological criticism, or what  Foss calls "traces of ideology in an artifact," is the ideograph. It is a symbol representing an ideological concept and is more than what the symbol itself depicts. Michael  McGee, a renowned ideological critic, postulated that an “ideograph is an ordinary term found in political discourse” that “is a high-order abstraction representing collective commitment to a particular but equivocal and ill-defined normative goal”. Thus, McGee restricted ideographs to words, words that “constitute a vocabulary of public motives, which authorize and warrant public actions”. McGee encourages the study of ideographs (such as “liberty” and “freedom”) to help identify the ideological position of a society. He argues such terms are used in discourse as a means of justifying problematic issues within a society. The meaning of an ideograph is defined by a society and its culture and can change over time. Ideographs need not be only positive in nature, but can be negative as well. For example, tyranny and slavery, can “guide behavior and belief negatively by branding unacceptable behavior." McGee notes that to fully understand ideographs, they must be examined both “diachronically” as well as “synchronically.” That is, ideographs need to be examined across time to determine how their meanings may have changed and all ideographs that are used in a given situation must be considered.
Ideograph A unit of analysis in ideological criticism, or what Sonja Foss calls "traces of ideology in an artifact," is the ideograph. It is a symbol representing an ideological concept and is more than what the symbol itself depicts. Michael Calvin McGee, a renowned ideological critic, postulated that an “ideograph is an ordinary term found in political discourse” that “is a high-order abstraction representing collective commitment to a particular but equivocal and ill-defined normative goal”. Thus, McGee restricted ideographs to words, words that “constitute a vocabulary of public motives, which authorize and warrant public actions”. McGee encourages the study of ideographs (such as “liberty” and “freedom”) to help identify the ideological position of a society. He argues such terms are used in discourse as a means of justifying problematic issues within a society. The meaning of an ideograph is defined by a society and its culture and can change over time. Ideographs need not be only positive in nature, but can be negative as well. For example, tyranny and slavery, can “guide behavior and belief negatively by branding unacceptable behavior." McGee notes that to fully understand ideographs, they must be examined both “diachronically” as well as “synchronically.” That is, ideographs need to be examined across time to determine how their meanings may have changed and all ideographs that are used in a given situation must be considered.
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Sonja
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Calvin